Very early, Frederick Landier (Rubin Steiner), with a K as in BlacK Flag and Big BlacK knew he wanted to do music.
Not surf like dumbass David Charvet, but music. Still, the young boy was gifted for skateboard. At 12, fiddling in his room, he discovers the joys of cut-up à la Burroughs/Schaeffer and manages like Judas Priest and Queen, by playing records of Einsturzende Neubauten backwards to find himself a name in the reading of titles fragments ; Niebuhr Rehniets [NIBUR RENIETS] gives birth to Rubin Steiner with a mirror effect.
Now that he exists, Rubin Steiner has to find a destiny. The cheeky asphalt kid - Frederick Landier with a K as in Kraftwerk, forsakes both tar and wax after a bad fall and commits body and soul to his other passion, music.
Back in 89 he used to record with both hands home-tapes of the Dead Kennedys, Rapeman, Cult Hero, Mule, Pixies, Nirvana, Stereolab and Fugazi for his high school mates. Those were the days of emocore Washington style and californian hard-core, of rotten Vans and of proletarian Strasbourg beer...
His passion for hard-core and demanding and unexpected music naturally brings him to the waves of local free radio (Radio Beton) with a funny serious show (Nuisances Sonores) and his musical tastes and liking for eclecticism start to affirm themselves.
From the microphone to the pen, one kick flip is enough to make him head writer of the nuttiest and most brilliant 90's fanzine, the Stereophile, kind of messy collective of talents and subversive visions on indie culture (or not), mainstream (or not), underground (for a laugh). The experiment takes him to the Merz period, and to several unique adventures (Autobahn's private concert in a car on the highway among others).
However, he still has dreams of baroques sounds collages, between Mingus, Daft Punk and Beastie Boys, or Public Enemy, Sonic Youth and Coltrane. It will be Lo-fi Nu jazz (UHS, 98), short auto-produced record, as creative as innovative, bearing the germs of the savoir-faire and talent of the young man.
A genial first try. Then comes the "Dancing music Show" (nearly 50 dates) among which this wild live in Lusignan with Placido in August 1999, allowing him to practically claim the paternity of the "bootleg", 3 years before 2 many DJ's, with condensed mix of cross-overs, where George Benson, Joey Starr, George Michael, among others, mix and overlap.
In a Cartesian logic, the follow up to his first album will be Lo-Fi Nu Jazz Vol.2, first discreetly released on Un Hiver Sale/Platinum and which brings him national and extra-national press distinction and sees him frenetically chain vinyls, 7", LP's and compilations.
The release of Wunderbar Drei in march 2002 confirms this happy ascension, also marking the constitution of the Rubin Steiner Quartet for concerts, with in addition to Rubin on machines, a mutant cello (Sylvestre Perrusson), a decadent trombone (Benoit Louette) and François Pirault as a V-jay, for astounding electro-jazz sets.
The album is a subtle diary of genres and styles, never totally jazz, nor rock, nor hip-hop, nor even bossa or retro (charleston?). An unexpected and anti-conformist musical demonstration, thus eclipsing all categories and emphasizing on the unique melodic talent of its auteur.
Wunderbar Drei, praised by critique and acclaimed by the numerous crowds attending the concerts, shows a breathtaking graphic and musical aestheticism, and places him on the french map, standing out of the myriad of similar projects on the french electronic scene.
Just like a poem by Prevert, concerts, collaborations, names of places, exotic nicknames, festival sites and cities chain and interweave : Brazil, TTC, Turkey, Wevie Stonder, Russie, Mr Neveux, Place du colonel Fabien, Spain, dj Scissorkicks, Casamance, Gonzales, Ninja Tune, Presidentchirac, Grand Popo Football Club, Canada, Loo & Placido, Robert le Magnifique, Switzerland, Japan, Mme Douze, Germany, Mr Quark, England, DJ Vadim, Dj Spooky, Brittany, Nestor is Bianca, Montreux, Cinemix, etc.
Projects multiply and hatch ; with remixes of Dit Terzi, Julien Ribot, Bosco, Arthur H, support to label Travaux Publics, Les Rockomotives, more recently remixes for the catalogue Ici D'ailleurs (Bästärd, Married Monk, Tiersen & co) for the projet Oumupo and also cinemix on "L'inconnu" 1927 silent movie by Tod Browning.
A japanese designer, inspired by his music, will even create an armchair line in his name. Some tracks (Guitarlandia) put in the hands of the best remixers from Ninja Tune confirm in 2003 the international character of his status and reinforce his french legitimacy.
Drum Major ! , released in february 2005 is in his creator's own image, disrespectful and ingenious, crossing genres, with a care for composition (melodic evidence) and production thoroughness (complexity of the arrangements).
Drum Major ! Draws once again and more than ever splendid connections between old-school hip-hop, enlightened and deviant electronica, narcoleptic jazz, messy exotica, hallucinating big beat, and noisy visceral punk rock...
This new album has a palpable rhythmical density and keeps a stronger unity than its predecessor. Avalanche of whimsical sounds, perverted distorted vocals, concrete music appendixes, macadamized hip-hop, subtle moments and evanescent saudade compose the abstract network and colorful universe of this new classy record.
Drum Major ! Can easily be inscribed in the long line of this family of nonchalant and extravagant creators like the Beastie Boys, Esquivel, Death In Vegas, Jimi Tenor, Blackalicious or Prefuse 73 and Fourtet... Unless it is the cunning synthesis of all those. A radical album, (new) radical stage line-up with Neue Band : sampler, laptop, guitar and vocals (Rubin), drums, toy synth (Boogers), trombone (Oliv'yeah Claveau) and Sylvestre Perrusson swapping cello for bass.
A new formula bringing a incandescent touch (punk rock effect), also ardent (jazz-exotica effect) and powerfully dancefloor (electro hip-hop counter effect) to the new compositions.
Frederick-Rubin Steiner, with a K as in Koltrane exotiKa and an S as in Sun Râ and MuSh, perpetual conceiver of sound landscapes, comes to kick our senses' ass!
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