An appropriate biography for Benn Jordan (the man behind The Flashbulb, Flexe, Q-bit, Acidwolf, and countless other pseudonyms) would be in the form of a stock ticker constantly scrolling up to date information on his multiple careers and endeavors. He is well known around the world in electronica for his abrasive trademarks multiplied with a level of diversity that makes just about anyones head spin. His catalog of releases is so extensive and obscure that there is no place on the internet that can accurately and completely list them. It also seems that Benn has replaced sleeping with film composing, and has recently mirrored his accomplishments in the film industry. But dont be intimidated by his amount of work, the quality-for-quantity rule does not apply here. Pick any album out of this long discography and youll find that it has its own place, and sometimes its own genre.
Benn Jordan was born in The-Middle-Of-Nowhere, Georgia in 1978. At a young age he moved from an American Indian reservation to Chicago to live with his grandparents, and was fluent in music notation before his first day of grade school. By the time Benn was old enough to drive, he was not only teaching classical guitar, but he had also taken part in Chicagos explosive acid house and industrial scenes of the mid-nineties by releasing albums on obscure short-lived labels and lugging synthesizers into parties instead of turntables.
After his first tour in 1999, Jordan released the album M under the alias The Flashbulb that gained him an international following with little more promotion than word of mouth. Another significant point of Benns popularity was his release of a speaker-cone-tearing remix on Aphex Twins label Rephlex Records. Shortly thereafter came Drain Mode = ON on Germanys Suburban Trash Records and many other releases that marked him as a key figure, if not a pioneer, in a genre well known today as breakcore. Other releases near the turn of the millennium include These Open Fields, which used raw emotion and atmosphere to break through to its listeners instead of impressive computer sequencing.
As the years passed the releases became more and more developed and diversified. In 2003 Alphabasic released Resent And The April Sunshine Shed, which featured a heavy Eastern influence complete with Benns own sitar playing. In early 2004 Sublight Records opened shop with Red Extensions Of Me which combined the ultimate homage of abrasive breakbeat sequencing with melodies recorded from guitars and basses rigged with MIDI pickups. 2004 also brought us another one of Benns aliases called Flexe, who released Programmable Love Songs Volume 1, a dance oriented album made with homemade software.
In live performances, The Flashbulb often raises the laptop performers bar by bringing midi guitars and foot-controlled heavy effect units along with him on tour. The occasional show brings the audience a vivid stage presence, but most of the time Benn shyly concentrates on his performance hidden behind gear, occasionally peeping out and smiling when applauded. That same timidity is often applied in almost all aspects of Jordans career. He rarely accepts interviews or media photographs, and in the few times words or his voice have appeared in his recordings, it is often verbally unrevealing or camouflaged behind effects processing. However luckily for his listeners, Jordan possesses the talent to make his instruments flawlessly speak for whatever emotion he wants to portray, be it sadness, happiness, rage, or just sheer technical boredom.
Judging from accomplishments and expectations hes made for himself, its hard imagine Benn Jordan not playing a significant role in everything he applies himself to. As his following and popularity continues to grow, so does his creative output and production. Dont let the lack of mainstream publicity fool you, Jordan has worked alongside everyone from Cylob to Elton John, and his name is attached to everything from computer software to feature films.
Hey mon...could you possibly put me in your top 8 and link to my myspace or something.
That way I can stay in touch with mah fanz and there won't be any iden-titty confusion...!
thanx0r
this music is fantastic!
i don't ever hear sounds like flashbulb and i say this music is simply beautiful.Your music is also very apprecied in Stepmania (DDR simulator for pc) and i say that if you do publicity in france for your music, you become famous!:)
And i view that sound like aphex twins:i have girl boy song (in stepmania)and it's worst than your music.
i'm honored...but i should prolly ask you to remove this...as it's hosting copywritten material and potentially misleading...and i wouldn't want you to get in trouble with the labels. :-(
