Pictureplane

Pictureplane is the moniker of Travis Egedy, an indie electronic producer, visual artist, and clothing designer who is often credited with coining the term “witch house.” His music is heavily influenced by ’90s dance music styles such as rave, hip-house, drum’n’bass, and trance, but with a distorted, lo-fi edge informed by the D.I.Y. punk and noise scenes. His raw, sensual songs frequently explore themes and concepts relating to occult symbolism, gender identities, and various aspects of hyperreality. Born in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1985, he started making music as Pictureplane while living in Denver and attending courses at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design. He began self-releasing albums of homemade noise-pop in 2004, and honed his music and performance style while living at D.I.Y. warehouse venue Rhinoceropolis, which he helped establish as the epicenter of the Denver underground scene. After the release of his 2007 album Turquoise Trail, his music became significantly more influenced by dance music and club culture, past and present. His internet-circulated remixes of HEALTH (“Die Slow”) and Crystal Castles (“Air War”) built up a significant buzz in the blogosphere, as did his ecstatic, adventurous DJ mixes, which incorporated everything from happy hardcore and jungle to goth and darkwave. He subsequently hooked up with the New York-based Lovepump United label and released the album Dark Rift (2009). Around the time of the album’s release, Pictureplane was featured in the influential online publications Pitchfork, Stereogum, and XLR8R. The song “Goth Star” was released as a promotional MP3 on these websites and garnered notice with its Fleetwood Mac sample. An EP called True Rain Light Body, which featured a remix by Teengirl Fantasy, appeared in 2010 on Isomorph Records. Pictureplane’s second full-length for Lovepump United, Thee Physical, explored concepts relating to the significance of physical contact in a post-modern, digital era. The album was released in 2011, and was followed in early 2012 by Dimensional Rip 7, a remix album featuring interpretations by Grimes, Tearist, Extreme Animals, and others. Following Egedy’s 2012 relocation to Brooklyn, he toured with Crystal Castles and Major Lazer, and continued pumping out singles and online DJ mixes. He also began producing beats for underground rappers such as Antwon and Noah23. Anticon signed Pictureplane in 2015 and released his full-length album Technomancer in October. ~ Jason Birchmeier & Paul Simpson