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James Ferraro

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

James Ferraro is an American musician, producer, composer and visual artist, born in 1986 in Rochester, New York. His father was a musician and DJ, his mother a singer. At eighteen he moved to San Diego, where he met Spencer Clark. Together they formed the noise duo the Skaters around 2006, which released its last record in 2008 with Physicalities Of The Sensibilities Of Ingrediential Stairways. The critic Simon Reynolds said the group had set an international post-noise network in motion.

Music and breakthrough

After that Ferraro released solo records under many names, often on labels of his own such as New Age Tapes and Muscleworks Inc. In 2010 Night Dolls with Hairspray appeared. In 2011 he joined the label Hippos in Tanks, where the controversial album Far Side Virtual was chosen Album of the Year by The Wire. That album marked the transition from a lo-fi sound to a clearer, more electronic one. Collaborations followed later, including with Yves Tumor on Bodyguard and with Bladee on Cold Visions.

Influence

Ferraro is regarded as a pioneer of post-noise, hypnagogic pop and vaporwave, genres of the twenty-first century. His work is about hyperreality and consumer culture and draws on contemporary classical music, new age, electronica, drone, sound collages, R&B and hip hop. It sounds like the music of shopping malls, phones and commercials, but estranged. In this way he had a great influence on the internet music of the past decade.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Global Lunch and notice the glossy, artificial sounds: does it sound like music from a commercial or a computer game, and what makes it strange?

Discography

Studio albums

See also

Categories: ArtistsVaporwave