Matt Lange is an American DJ and producer based in Los Angeles. He is best known for co-producing "Goodbye" with DJ
Glenn Morrison, together with soundtracks for movies including ''
Blade Runner 2049
''Blade Runner 2049'' is a 2017 American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green. A sequel to the 1982 film ''Blade Runner'', the film stars Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, w ...
'' and ''
Ready Player One
''Ready Player One'' is a 2011 science fiction novel, and the debut novel of American author Ernest Cline. The story, set in a dystopia in 2045, follows protagonist Wade Watts on his search for an Easter egg in a worldwide virtual reality ga ...
''. His use of
modular synthesis and
isorhythm
Isorhythm (from the Greek for "the same rhythm") is a musical technique using a repeating rhythmic pattern, called a ''talea'', in at least one voice part throughout a composition. ''Taleae'' are typically applied to one or more melodic patterns o ...
s in his musical productions have brought him notice.
Lange produced
progressive house
Progressive house is a subgenre of house music. The progressive house style emerged in the early 1990s. It initially developed in the United Kingdom as a natural progression of American and European house music of the late 1980s.Gerard, Morgan; ...
and
deep house
Deep house is a subgenre of house music that originated in the 1980s, initially fusing elements of Chicago house with the lush chords of 1980s jazz-funk and touches of soul music. Its origins are attributed to the early recordings of Larry Heard ( ...
early in his career, before moving into
techno
Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...
production from 2015 onwards. Lange found his own label, Isorhythm, in 2011 as a platform to release his own music. He released his debut studio album, ''Ephemera'', in 2015 through
Mau5trap
Mau5trap (stylized as mau5trap; pronounced "mousetrap") is an independent Canadian record label founded in 2007 by electronic music producer Deadmau5. The label was formerly a vanity label, hosting releases through labels such as Ultra Music, Vi ...
, which was later followed up with ''Isolated'' in 2020.
Early life
Lange was born in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, New York.
As a four-year-old child, he was pushed by his parents into learning the piano, which he disliked to practice.
He later joined a boys' choir at the age of six, which he stayed with for six years.
After his voice changed, he left the choir and learnt how to play the guitar, which eventually led him to joining a
hardcore punk
Hardcore punk (also known as simply hardcore) is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots can be traced to earlier punk ...
metal band.
Lange's later interest in
Aphex Twin
Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known as Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born British musician, composer and DJ. He is known for his idiosyncratic work in electronic music, electronic styles such as techno, ambient music, ambient, and jun ...
and
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN and stylized as NIИ, is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland in 1988. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Trent Reznor was the only permanent member of the band ...
spiked his interest in recording demos and learning how to produce music. Lange initially experimented with programming basic beats on
Fruity Loops
FL Studio (previously known as FruityLoops before 2003) is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by the Belgian company Image-Line.
FL Studio features a graphical user interface with a pattern-based music sequencer. The program is availa ...
and
Acid Pro
Acid Pro (often stylized ACID) is a professional digital audio workstation (DAW) software program currently developed by Magix Software. It was originally called Acid pH1 and published by Sonic Foundry, later by Sony Creative Software as Acid P ...
, later mixing them with his recorded guitar audio.
He is a graduate of the
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...
, where he studied
music synthesis
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
involving composition-based music production and sound design.
Career
2007–2011: IsoRhythm
While Lange was writing his senior thesis in Berklee at the age of 21, he was introduced to American musician
BT by his professor Dr. Boulanger who was BT's mentor.
This led to Lange working for BT while BT was making his album ''
These Hopeful Machines
''These Hopeful Machines'' is the sixth studio album by American electronic musician BT. Released on February 1, 2010, the album sees collaborations with the likes of JES, Rob Dickinson, Christian Burns and Kirsty Hawkshaw, also featuring a cov ...
'', which was nominated for a
Grammy
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...
award in 2011. Lange earned a percussion credit on the track "Rose of Jericho". Prior to that, Lange self-released an
IDM and
glitch
A glitch is a short-lived fault in a system, such as a transient fault that corrects itself, making it difficult to troubleshoot. The term is particularly common in the computing and electronics industries, in circuit bending, as well as among ...
album in 2007 under his alias Altered Tensions, which was influenced by artists
Richard Devine
Richard Devine is an Atlanta-based electronic musician and sound designer. He is recognized for producing a layered and heavily processed sound, combining influences from glitch music to old and modern electronic music. Devine largely records for ...
and
Telefon Tel Aviv
Telefon Tel Aviv is a New Orleans–derived, Chicago-based American electronic music act, formerly comprising Charles Cooper and Joshua Eustis. Since Cooper's accidental death in 2009, Telefon Tel Aviv has continued with Eustis as the sole official ...
.
Lange released his first official single in 2009 through
Armada Music
Armada Music is a Dutch independent record label that specialises in releasing electronic dance music. The name Armada derives from the first two letters of the founders' first names: Armin van Buuren, Maykel Piron and David Lewis.
Signed a ...
: "Anywhere With You Is Home" featuring singer Kerry Leva. This continued through 2010 where he released "East Coast / Resonate" through Silk Music and "As the Rain Falls" with Ad Brown through Songbird. After completing BT's album, Lange signed on to British label
Anjunadeep through his connections with friend
Andrew Bayer
Andrew Michael Bayer (born 1987) is an American DJ and Grammy-nominated music producer. He is best known for working with Anjunabeats as a multi-genre artist and English deep house sublabel Anjunadeep.
Born in Washington, D.C., Bayer was pia ...
.
He then released a number of singles through the label, including "Rift", "A Deeper Shade / Other Stories", and "Quadcore", a collaboration with other Anjunabeats regulars
Boom Jinx
Øistein Johan Eide (; born 10 September 1974 in Bergen), better known by his stage name Boom Jinx, is a Norwegian music producer and DJ.
Career
In 1989, Boom Jinx started making music with SoundTracker developed for the Commodore Amiga comput ...
, Bayer, and Trifonic.
In 2011, Lange founded his own label, IsoRhythm,
in response to his inclinations to release his music without dealing with the schedules and bureaucracies of other labels.
Through IsoRhythm, he released a few sample libraries and EPs of his own work.
2012–2014: "Goodbye" and co-productions
Lange continued to release a number of tracks throughout 2012, such as the ''Here & Back Again'' EP and "Bowed / Class B" with Canadian DJ
Glenn Morrison.
In 2013, Lange co-produced Morrison's single "Goodbye", which was nominated for Dance Recording of the Year at the 2015
Juno Awards
The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...
and charted at #12 on the Billboard Canadian Top 100.
He also produced ''Portrait of a Chameleon'' for ''
American Idol
''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...
'' runner-up
Blake Lewis
Blake Colin Lewis (born July 21, 1981) is an American musician, singer and actor who was the runner-up on the sixth season of ''American Idol''. His major label debut album '' A.D.D. (Audio Day Dream)'' was released on December 4, 2007, through ...
, and ''Now or Never'' for French
trance
Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...
artist Tania Zygar.
On July 14, 2014, Lange released his ''Stacatto'' EP through Anjunadeep, which comprises
progressive house
Progressive house is a subgenre of house music. The progressive house style emerged in the early 1990s. It initially developed in the United Kingdom as a natural progression of American and European house music of the late 1980s.Gerard, Morgan; ...
,
deep house
Deep house is a subgenre of house music that originated in the 1980s, initially fusing elements of Chicago house with the lush chords of 1980s jazz-funk and touches of soul music. Its origins are attributed to the early recordings of Larry Heard ( ...
, and
ambient tracks.
The EP was described as a "silent movie score" by ''
Dancing Astronaut
Dancing Astronaut is an American media platform founded in 2009 that primarily covers the electronic dance music industry. The website covers concerts and festivals, reports on entertainment news, reviews music, and publishes original content sy ...
''.
He also released "There She Goes" as a free download on December 10, 2014.
2015–2016: ''Ephemera'' and ''Patchwork''
In 2015,
Deadmau5
Joel Thomas Zimmerman (born January 5, 1981), known professionally as Deadmau5 (stylized as deadmau5; pronounced "dead-mouse"), is a Canadian electronic music producer and DJ. He mainly produces progressive house music, though he also produces ...
's label
Mau5trap
Mau5trap (stylized as mau5trap; pronounced "mousetrap") is an independent Canadian record label founded in 2007 by electronic music producer Deadmau5. The label was formerly a vanity label, hosting releases through labels such as Ultra Music, Vi ...
reached out to Lange upon hearing a techno track he had produced, and Lange responded by sending the label a number of his unreleased techno tracks.
Eight months later, Deadmau5 contacted Lange through Twitter to praise his "Scorched Earth Policy" track, and within two hours gave Lange a record contract.
Lange went beyond the label's original contract for an EP, and released his debut album ''Ephemera'' through Mau5trap on September 10, 2015. To celebrate the album's release, Lange threw a party with InDeep and Mau5trap at Los Angeles' Sound Nightclub.
Preceding the album's release were
minimal techno
Minimal techno is a subgenre of techno music. It is characterized by a stripped-down aesthetic that exploits the use of repetition and understated development. Minimal techno is thought to have been originally developed in the early 1990s by Detro ...
lead single "My Love Aside",
glitch hop
Glitch is a genre of electronic music that emerged in the 1990s. It is distinguished by the deliberate use of glitch-based audio media and other sonic artifacts.
The glitching sounds featured in glitch tracks usually come from audio recording de ...
and
industrial
Industrial may refer to:
Industry
* Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry
* Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems
* Industrial city, a city dominate ...
track "Lying to Myself", "Ripples", and "The Fever" featuring Quivver. The techno album indicated a large shift in sound from his previous house releases, with Lange stating that ''Ephemera'' was mainly inspired by his self-built modular synthesizer system.
He also said that the "minimal and groove based" sounds in "My Love Aside" helped to increase his freedom and improvisation while DJing, since it allowed Lange to play looped pieces of multiple tracks at the same time without jumbling up.
A remix album for ''Ephemera'' was released on July 8, 2016, and consisted of remixes from
Mat Zo
Matan Zohar ( ; born 30 April 1990), better known by his stage name Mat Zo, is a British producer and DJ. Zohar released his debut album, ''Damage Control'', via the Anjunabeats and Astralwerks labels on 5 November 2013. His second studio alb ...
, Anthony Baldino, Attlas, and Calyx & Teebee.
Lange, together with other Mau5trap artists Attlas,
Rezz, and
Steve Duda
Steve Duda is an American DJ, record producer, audio engineer, manager and software engineer from Menlo Park, California. He is best known for his mid-2000s collaborative electronic music projects with Canadian record producer and DJ deadmau5 un ...
, were announced for a collaborative Mau5trap Bus Tour in February 2016. The tour brought them across North America, the first stop being
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
.
On April 16, 2016, Lange released a seven-track EP titled ''Patchwork'' through Mau5trap, marking his second major release on the label.
While the first five tracks of the EP were labeled as techno, the final two songs were vocally-focused and described by Lange as "the most personal tracks
e has
E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plura ...
ever written."
Lange stated that the EP was originally conceived to be of modular synthesizer based techno and expand on ''Ephemera'' themes, but unexpected life events which he experienced caused the project's scope to increase overall.
''Dancing Astronaut'' praised the variety of melodic and "harder" tracks in the EP, which the author alluded to Lange's skill with modular synthesis and sound manipulation.
''Patchwork'' last track, "Consider This", was later released as a single on April 29, 2016.
He released his final single of 2016 on September 16, a techno track titled "Unsettled".
The song was premiered at the Smirnoff House Nocturnal Wonderland event with
Mixmag
''Mixmag'' is a British electronic dance and clubbing magazine published in London. Launched in 1983 as a print magazine, it has branched into dance events, including festivals and club nights.
History
The first issue of ''Mixmag'' was prin ...
.
2017–present: ''Punish Me'' and ''Space Between''
Lange continued to release a series of EPs in 2017: three-track ''Escapist'' on March 31, rock-inspired
''Punish Me'' on April 13 whose tracks featured vocals by Lange,
and ''Bleed Together'' on December 13. ''Dancing Astronaut'' labelled ''Punish Me'' as Lange's "finest and most brooding bodies of work to date", continuing to praise the intimate and dark themes within the EPs tracks.
On February 8, 2017, Lange released an
industrial
Industrial may refer to:
Industry
* Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry
* Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems
* Industrial city, a city dominate ...
cover of "
Fade into You
"Fade into You" is a song by American alternative rock band Mazzy Star from their second studio album, '' So Tonight That I Might See'' (1993). The song was written by lyricist Hope Sandoval and composer David Roback, who also served as produ ...
" by American alternative rock band
Mazzy Star
Mazzy Star is an American alternative rock band formed in 1988 in Santa Monica, California, from remnants of the group Opal. Founding member David Roback's friend Hope Sandoval became the group's vocalist when Kendra Smith left Opal.
Mazzy Star ...
.
Lange mentioned that the blend of rock music, glitchy musical programming, and atmospheric elements in the song were "a look into what's coming next" in his career.
His original intention to remix "Clever Girl" from ''Punish Me'' also eventually transformed into the track "All You Need to See", which he released as a single on August 7, 2017.
On April 13, 2018, Lange released his ''Diversions'' EP through IsoRhythm. This was followed by "Are You Am I" on July 13, 2018, which featured Canadian artist
Deniz Reno
Deniz Rakhmanova, known professionally as Deniz Reno, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, visual artist and a member of the American Recording Academy (GRAMMYs).
Reno is best known for her viral cover of Chris Isaak’s "Wicked Game" with Russia ...
.
On February 19, 2019, Lange released the lead single to his next EP titled "Space Between", co written with and featuring Canadian singer songwriter
Deniz Reno
Deniz Rakhmanova, known professionally as Deniz Reno, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, visual artist and a member of the American Recording Academy (GRAMMYs).
Reno is best known for her viral cover of Chris Isaak’s "Wicked Game" with Russia ...
, which combined elements of
pop and progressive house.
The EP of the same name was later fully released on March 13, 2019, through Mau5trap. In a press statement, Lange stated that ''Space Between'' "explores the sonic aesthetic
e has
E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plura ...
been honing in on over the past year" while "combining outboard and modular synths with acoustic instrumentation".
Lange was featured on Deadmau5's 2019 remix album ''Here's The Drop'', with his remix of "Superbia (ov)". He then returned to
Anjunabeats
Anjunabeats is a British record label started by producers Jonathan "Jono" Grant and Paavo Siljamäki of Above & Beyond in 2000. Initially exclusively a trance music label, around 2011 Anjunabeats started releasing primarily trance-edged hou ...
after a period of five years with his release of "Every Word" on October 11, 2019. The track was later included in Lange's ''Isn't It Lovely'' EP and featured as the first track on the ''Anjunabeats Volume 14'' album.
Lange's second studio album, ''Isolated'', was released on October 27, 2020, through Isorhythm. Lange's third studio album, ''Dichotomy'', was released on August 5, 2022, also through Isorhythm.
Discography
;Studio albums
* ''Ephemera'' (2015)
* ''Isolated'' (2020)
* ''Dichotomy'' (2022)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lange, Matt
20th-century American musicians
21st-century American musicians
Musicians from New York City
Musicians from Los Angeles
American DJs
Living people
Mau5trap artists
Progressive house musicians
Remixers
Techno musicians
Monstercat Silk artists
Year of birth missing (living people)