Machinedrum

Freely adopting different guises as needed, chameleonic IDM producer Travis Stewart is best known for his work as Machinedrum. Born in Eden, North Carolina in 1982, the multi-instrumentalist thrived in a musical family and began crafting left-field electronic music in high school. Machinedrum’s 2001 debut Now You Know still stands as a defining document of glitch-hop, merging IDM’s askew cadences with rap’s head-nodding snap. Cutting releases for adventurous record labels around the world, Stewart has incorporated newer styles like dubstep, juke and footwork, as well as collaborating with rappers like Azealia Banks and Theophilus London. Whatever name or project he is employing, Stewart reliably strikes a balance between vaporous tones and sophisticated yet satisfying beats. Since moving to Los Angeles in 2015, he has communed with the California sun on his 2022 ambient album elysian as tstewart, contrasting his early work’s hecticness with serene minimalism.