Realistic is the guise of sound collage artist James Towning, an electronic musician and graphic designer originally from Ohio, where he also performed in a band called Fact TwentyTwo from 1986-1995.
In 1998 the Realistic album Maidenhead was co-released by Negativland's Seeland Records and Realistic's Black Music label. Towning described it as "seventeen retarded children lined-up and displayed for the whole world to hear. Fifty minutes of dynamic headphones bliss." Following that were a 12" EP, Smells Like Teen Disco, and a full-length album, Private Moments, both on Illegal Art. A remix album titled Toilet Parts was released shortly after Private Moments and is a good example of Realistic's tracks often having several versions and permutations beyond the official release.
Realistic's third album Perpetual Memory Loss was released by Illegal Art on October 23rd, 2007. It features sixteen tracks of intricate sample-based compositions-- a beautifully sophisticated celebration of found sound, recorded media, technology, and electronic composition.
