Touring extensively with Thrill Jockey’s postrock darlings A Minor Forest, Lesser built up notoriety on the electronic underground. Now the mainstream press is crashing the party: Lesser’s side project DISC garnered a rave review from legendary rock critic Richard Meltzer, who called it “the greatest work of electronic sound manipulation since Steve Reich’s tape experiments”. Lesser’s annihilation of drum and bass frameworks has also caught the attention of the in-the-know folks at SPIN magazine, who singled out his Welcome to the American Experience release in his profile on the San Diego label Vinyl Communications as an outstandingly fresh and unpredictable work of American electronica. Lesser’s newest outing, Gearhound, been called a “detriment to humanity,” a title coveted by super villains and world leaders, but seldom realized.

Covering Public Enemy, Merzbow and the Doobie Brothers with equal aplomb, Lesser straddles the division between the drum and bass, IDM and noise scenes. Dropping a fiendish live mixture of beats and improvised freakouts that manages to win over members of all three camps. The wide variety of labels and artists currently seeking tracks (Chicago’s Kultbox, Scotland’s Diskono! and, ahem, Matador Europe) and remixes (Super Furry Animals, Jr. Varsity) from Lesser indicates the diversity of his approach. Playing guitar in the Metallica cover band Creeping Death, Lesser’s got chops for days, and the sense not to put musical muscularity in the way of a good time. Perhaps the hours spent decoding those riffs and solos shows through in the programming finesse, texture and attention to detail you’ll find in the average Lesser song—who knows?

J Lesser appears courtesy of Matador Records Europe and prefers to be adressed as “Sir”.