Mark Stewart

An enduring figure on the edgy frontiers of the British music scene, Mark Stewart first came to prominence as a member of the punk/dub noisemaking squad the Pop Group -- a band that bolted slashing guitar noise and fractured melodies to primitive funk and dub rhythms. Stewart released his first solo effort in 1983, Learning to Cope with Cowardice, and followed it with As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade, Mark Stewart, and Metatron. Throughout the '90s and 2000s, Stewart devoted much of his energy to producing and collaborating with other artists, including Tricky and Massive Attack, but he also released Kiss the Future (a career-spanning 2005 anthology), Edit (2008), and The Politics of Envy (2012). ~ Mark Deming