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ost
  • Born: in Edinburgh, Scotland
  • Years Active: 1990s-2000s
  • Genre: Dance & Electronic

O.S.T. (Original Soundtrack, as well as a few other, less printable pseudos) is the one-man ambient/experimental electro project of DJ/producer Chris Douglass. A native of Edinburgh, Douglass left Scotland at the age of ten for San Francisco, where he's lived ever since. Raised on a heaping diet of John Coltrane and Max Roach (his mother is a jazz fanatic), he added early-'80s breakdance music to his list of influences when artists such as Egyptian Lover and Uncle Jamm's Army began defining the sound of California hip-hop and electro (Douglass himself spent his share of time perfecting backspins on squares of discarded cardboard and linoleum). Combining the above two styles with the more melancholic elements of British and European rock and Euro-pop groups such as the Smiths, Kraftwerk, and Morton Subotnick, Douglass began producing music in 1993, and released his first 12-inch on Detroit's Switch label (an arresting three-tracker of bizarre rhythmic noise experiments) the following year. Although he originally planned on relocating to techno's birthplace, Douglass moved back to SF shortly after the Switch twelve was released and began working on an album for Jonah Sharp's Reflective label. The album never appeared, and that and a handful more of gone-nowhere EP and LP release plans with labels such as Skam and Plug Research have resulted in as many as 500 tracks and four complete albums lying dormant in Douglass' DAT cachet. O.S.T. material finally began appearing with more frequency starting in 1996, beginning with his remix of Spacetime Continuum's "Simm City" on the latter's Remit Recaps CD alongside the likes of Carl Craig, Autechre, and Higher Intelligence Agency. Subsequent twelves for Qlipothic and noted London label Worm Interface, as well as tracks for compilations on XLR8R and Plug Research (both under the name Rook Vallade), appeared in 1996 and 1997. Douglass also performs live periodically, appearing on bills in America and the U.K. next to such names as Spacetime Continuum, Derrick May, Eric Hill, and post-rockers Trans Am. ~ Sean Cooper, Rovi

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