Audio By Carbonatix
Eliot Lipp grew up in Tacoma, Washington, enamored of classic hip-hop, electro, and even Chicago-style postrock à la Tortoise. Eventually, he decamped to Los Angeles and began tinkering with his own music that touched on all those influences, adding a heavy experimental bent that soon reached Scott Herren, better-known these days as Prefuse 73. Herren helped Lipp score his first record deal, and the two have continued to collaborate since.
Where his mentor’s music can veer toward the often-undanceable tendencies of so-called IDM, Lipp’s left-field take is funkier. His hip-hop influences are still easy to pick out with many of his songs’ boom-bap backbone. Still, the signature Lipp sonic characteristic is a heavy reliance on Korg synths, which gives everything a retro-futuristic feel. Besides Warp Records-loving chin-scratchers, though, he’s also popular on the jam circuit, thanks to improvisational tendencies and work with “livetronica” acts like Pnuma Trio.
