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Based in Los Angeles, constant flux features innovative electronic-oriented tracks created independently by Doug Rimerman as well as music done in partnership with other artists.
Fascinated with the potential to design unprecedented sounds, Doug was introduced to the possibilities of sound manipulation with electronic musical instruments at 8 years of age.
He was in a third grade music class when the music instructor brought in a Moog Sonic Six suitcase synth for the class to hear.
When he mentioned to his family that he wanted one of these instruments, which was quite costly at the time, his father headed the request off with the comment that he would build him a synthesizer.
This never actually materialized, instead, Doug was given a small toy organ which sufficed to maintain his attention until several years later.
It was not until age 18, when he started to work at his first job, that Doug was able to pay for his own piano lessons and after a few years buy his first synthesizer (a Roland U-20 which he quickly traded for a Roland D-50, well known in the 80's for its rich sonic textures).
He became truly absorbed with the production of new sounds and writing alternative electronic music.
His interest in musical styles ranged from composers and groups such as Mozart, Bartok, Shoenberg, and Phillip Glass to Depeche Mode, Joy Division, The Church, Front 242, Ultravox, XTC, Talking Heads, Easy E, Dr.
Dre, Kraftwerk, Art of Noise, Black Flag, Patrick O'Hearn, Al Demiola, and Carlos Alamar to name a few.
As the synthipop scene began to recede in the 80's, Doug Rimerman of Constant Flux initially shied away from anything to do with electronic oriented music.
Feeling oversaturated with the stale sounds of digital pcm type keyboard instruments developed at that time, he regained his fascination with music production from a keyboard instruments while listening to the use of analog instruments in early techno productions from Belgium and London.
At that point, he expended whatever finances he had saved up from working and purchased the equipment he thought would allow him to begin writing aggressive techno and later house.
People, bands, and collectives such as early Prodigy, 808 State, Joey Beltram, Enjoy, Moby, Lords of Acid, KLF, Channel X, and Meat Beat Manifesto were strong influences at the time.
Doug theorized that if people were using breakbeats in techno and house in England that there was likely a new style developing built around these energetic cuts.
A couple of years later in 1993, realizing that LA was somewhat behind in the area of electronic music production, he inquired to his friend in London, Jason Anderson, about the local music scene and was sent a cassette tape of a pirate radio station called Pulse FM.
He became very intrigued with the breakbeat jungle recorded on the tape and decided he needed to have his first look around the clubs in London at age 23.
On his visits to London he made his way to dance clubs such as, the Paradise Club, Labyrinth, and the Metal Headz' Leisure Lounge and managed to record many hours of various pirate stations such as Pulse FM, Heaven FM, and Eruption on cassette.
He found this style of electronic music very refreshing.
The complex rythms and deep bass grooves of Jungle and Drum & Bass once again rekindled his fascination with the limitless possibilities of music production.
He knew this intense type of dance music simply did not exist in Los Angeles and could only be listened to back home by bringing back tapes and a couple of cheesy commercial compilations.
For the next few years, Doug would travel once a year to Europe to find out what was happening on the electronic music scene and bring back cd's and tape samples that he listened while back home in Los Angeles.
In the 80s, he became intrigued with hip hop breaks and reggae bass lines and realized that these elements were being incorporated into Jungle and Drum & Bass.
People and groups like LTJ Bukem, Aphrodite, Krust, Original Nuttah, PFM, Peshy, GrooveRider, ZigZag, DJ Sky, and Chemistry and Storm were behind this tremendous scene from which Los Angeles seemed to be isolated.
He and a friend, Sean Sorensen, felt that it was unfortunate that people in Los Angeles did not have access to this compelling sound and decided to start a club on Sunset called Mercury to introduce visitors to jungle, happycore, and drum & bass by having a DJ from Canne play deep house and at a good time to slip in some happycore, jungle, and d&b as the self titled DJ team The Oracle.
The name Mercury was chosen for the club due to the small planets heat and fast orbit.
Mercury of course is also a very smooth flowing metal.
The club never really took off, and this was partly due to the reluctance of club visitors to embrace an unfamiliar style of music and the unstable situation with the building owners at the time who could not relate to the clubs concept.
Doug and co-founder Sean Sorensen had this fantasy that they could have a jungle club in LA that stayed open until 4am while the pulsating groove of breakbeat infected the room from their turntables.
Although the club ended, they did manage to start a flyer trend for dance clubs in Los Angeles.
Up to that time, flyers in LA had been passed out on irregularly shaped pieces of colored paper with handwritten text xeroxed and passed out to the masses.
For Mercury, Doug and Sean had worked with a talented computer graphic artist named Jason Walker to produce appealing black and white photographic postcard-sized flyers that were cost effective and easy to carry.
These flyers turned up everywhere in Los Angeles while Mercury was being promoted and the design has stayed around since.
By now you must be really bored with this biography and how it has strayed away from anything to do with constant flux.
It is now the end of the millennium, quite arbitrary in my opinion, however Doug Rimerman has finally come into his own breakbeat style which is sometimes grouped in the same genre associated with artists such as u-ziq and groups like Autechre.
He has experimented with several electronic musical style possibilities such as synthipop, industrial, new age, ambient, techno, house, and hip hop but is lately most emersed in the production of ambient, breakbeat dance that is at times melodic and lyrical well at other times aggressive and percussive.
He prefers to design sounds from scratch to give his music a more personal touch, although some traditional drum sounds are samples which have been sonicly manipulated to his taste.
Doug will typically begin by playing rythms from a drum pad or keyboard into a sequencer only to be recorded on two tracks and then re-recorded back into the computer to be sliced, diced, and manipulated in perverted ways :) joy..
Once he is comfortable with the synth sounds, effects, and percussion sounds he has created, he will then begin to write from a variety of musical perspectives while writing the various parts.
Often beginning with percussion and bass lines, moving on to string arrangements and melodies, and finally touching his music off with bizarre effects.
Like many people, Doug really appreciates dichotomy.
He often lures the listener in with soft textures and euphonic melodies with underlying fluffy pad chord progressions only to abruptly hit them with pounding bass and complex percussive rythms.
A couple of good examples include Mercury Cocktail ©Doug Rimerman and Distorted Ripple ©Doug Rimerman. You can also hear his frequently quirky style in Naked Harmonics as well as in Infect ©Doug Rimerman & Jay Vaughn, a piece co-written and produced in collaboration with another local Los Angeles electronic music artist well known for his groundhum.com, ampfea.com, and teklab.com websites which provides information about Yamaha's line of samplers and other music equipment, as well as information about various aspects of electronic music and an extensive sample library. In November 2001, Doug completed his ten-track debut album as constant flux which is titled all things change.
Now that the debut album all things change has been released constant flux receives radio airplay in Los Angeles on local KCRW 89.9 FM and KXLU 88.9 FM. For live performance Doug plays live alongside digital visual artist Yo Suzuki, renowned for his richly textured abstract video art. Yo has created a series of stunning visual tracks that perfectly accompany each of Doug's musical cuts at gigs. The visuals are performed by Yo live in real-time to the rhythm and tone of the constant flux sound. The venues they most like to play include art galleries, events at cultural institutions, and outdoor electronic music festivities. contant flux and Yo Suzuki most recently did a live show on November 3, 2001 that also featured KCRW's Jason Bentley at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for Late Night at LACMA, an art opening event with a club-like atmosphere that caters to the art-going hipster crowd. The event was attended by more than 900 people, and the duo got a great responses from several people in the audience. On March 3, 2002, Doug was invited to perform six tracks as constant flux live on KXLU 88.9 FM, which was followed by a twenty-minute interview to learn about his influences and overall vision. The one-hour spot went so well that he was asked to perform at KXLU again June 2002 and to play at a local electronic music festival hosted by the radio station.
After writing electronic music, following the underground electronic music scene, and absorbing a wealth of styles associated with the blossoming of technologically oriented music for the past 15 years, Doug is determined to expand his contribution to the dance culture scene and share his music with anyone that can relate to his explorative musical passion.
Check out the artist's website:
http://www.fluxgruv.comTrack List:
1. All Things Change
2. Mercury Cocktail
3. Distorted Ripple
4. All Things Break
5. Sonic Alchemy
6. Naked Harmonics
7. Flashgruv
8. Infect
9. Maximum Flux
10. Silky Cut Glass Groove
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