The Pocket Dwellers are a Canadian seven-member experimental hip-hop group from the

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 ...

area. The band's main genre is hip-hop, but their music is influenced by

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

and

breakbeat Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that tends to use drum breaks sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat hardcore, and UK ...

History

The Pocket Dwellers began forming together in 1996. That year the band performed at EdgeFest in Toronto. In 1999 the band performed in Hamilton as part of Showcase '99. The Pocket Dwellers released their first full-length record in 2000 after they signed a recording deal with Song Corp, and a second album, ''Digitally Organic'', later that year. Song Corp went bankrupt in early 2001, leaving the second album with no promotion. The next release was the album recorded live during sold out performances at a club in Toronto called the Reverb. The recording was released under Urbnet records. In 2005 they signed with Blue Note/EMI and released PD-Atrics. The recording was more hip hop based and involved less live instrumentation than had been employed in the past. In 2006 the band was nominated for a Juno award for best new group.

Members

*Dennis Passley "Deknow" – tenor

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

*Nigel Williams "N.I.Gel" –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

*John Griffith "Quest" – saxophone,

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

*Marco Raposo "Red" –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

*Gord Shields "Jupiter" –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

*Christian McKibbin "Holy C" –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

*Sheldon Moore "S-luv" –

turntables A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

:: guest musicians: * Brownman Ali –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

Discography

Albums

# '' Limited Edition - EP'' (1998) # ''

Digitally Organic Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...

'' (August 29, 2002)"Pocket Dwellers Digitally Organic"
''Exclaim!'', By Del F. Cowie. Dec 01, 2000 # '' Lifecheck'' (August 19, 2003) # ''

PD-Atrics ''PD-Atrics'' is the fourth album released by jazz-based hip hop and pop rock band Pocket Dwellers The Pocket Dwellers are a Canadian seven-member experimental hip-hop group from the Toronto area. The band's main genre is hip-hop, but their m ...

'' (October 4, 2005) # ''Conception: The Mix Tape Volume 2'' (2005)

References

Pocket Dwellers
at allmusic.com {{Authority control Canadian experimental musical groups Musical groups established in 1996 Canadian hip hop groups Musical groups from Toronto 1996 establishments in Ontario