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Formed in Manchester in 2007 after a chance meeting a few years earlier through mutual friends, Andrew Bowen -- originally from Belfast -- and Dimitri Poumplidis -- originally from Thessaloniki, Greece -- realized that they had both studied on the same music production course, and decided to work together when Poumplidis handed Bowen a CD of his own productions. Using their adopted hometown as inspiration for their often brutal and industrial-leaning brand of techno, the duo's first output came in the form of a split single on local label Mindset in 2009, and after a quiet 2010 they returned with an onslaught of releases in 2011. Appearing on Black Sun, Horizontal Ground, Idle Hands, and their own vinyl-only label Inner Surface, the pair's sound developed into their own brand of dark, industrial-focused techno throughout 2011, and they quickly picked up plaudits for their DJ and live sets. 2012 and 2013 saw the pair continue to release on labels such as Brothers, Hidden Hawaii Ltd, and Repitch, while increasing their profile with key DJ dates throughout Europe and the world. At the beginning of 2014, AnD released their first material for Speedy J's Electric Deluxe. The Kundalini EP would signal the start of their partnership with the label, and their Dark Matter EP was released a few months later, preceding the duo's debut album, Cosmic Microwave Background, which was issued the following month. ~ Rich Wilson