ill-esha is a Canadianelectronic music artist, producer, singer, and DJ known for her work in the bass music world, as well as her unique style of singing and DJing simultaneously.
Biography
From an early age ill-esha had a musical background, and she began her career as a vocalist, MC, and Drum and Bass DJ in the late 1990s. She was the first female D&B performer to mix records, sing, and MC simultaneously, and developed a diverse style by doing so, whilst blending electronic music genres such as broken beats, hip hop, breaks with D&B during her sets.
Music career
In 2001 her first 12" Single "Social Skillz" made with producer Datcyde was released on New York label Breakbeat Science. By 2007, she had played across North America, Asia and Europe, featured on CBC Television, CTV, and MTV Canada, built her own production studio, and performed vocals on numerous releases with D&B producers. The year 2007 marked the advance into the professional world of electronic music production, as she completed her debut album Perfect Circuit. After having successful D&B releases, the full-length album was independently released under her own label Elysha Zaide Music. A deviation from the aging genre of D&B, it encompassed an eclectic mix of electronica and pop inspired by her "myriad of music tastes, and love for technology and nature". Performed with a 5 piece live band The Perfect Circuit Band, ill-esha fronted with vocal and musical performance using a laptop and synthesizers. In the summer of 2007, the band debuted at the New Music West, Soundwave, and Victoria Electronic Music Festivals. The album Perfect Circuit was well received by the electronic music community, and her single "Broken Windows" was among the top 3 electronic category finalists for the 2007 John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Increasingly inspired by dubstep and glitch hop, in 2008 ill-esha began producing music more synonymous with the glitch genre, and founded Glitch Hop Forum with collaborator Dewey db. Together they produced the track "H.A.A.R.P" which was released in 2009 on Muti Music. It hit #3 on Beatport electronica downloads, and stayed in the top 10 for several months. Exploring her love of 2-step and future garage, she diversified further. In 2010 she was signed to Haunted Audio and Daly City Records. She has several single releases on Haunted Audio, and her second album Circadian Rhythms was released on Daly City Records the same year. The album held a spot in the top 10 monthly downloads on Addictech for December 2010. Sampling Daft Punk's soundtrack for the movie , she released a free bootleg "Purple Legacy" in 2010 which went to #1 on SoundCloud and garnered almost 15,000 plays in four days before being removed due to a copyright conflict with Disney. Collaborating for years with Bay Area Dubstep pioneer Antiserum, their mix of purple and hard dubstep reached the international market, with two vinyl releases "Zephyr" and "Lightning/Overflow" released on European labels Dub Police and Subway. She released several glitch/dubstep EPs on San Francisco-based Muti Music, and Austin-based label Gravitas Recordings. as well as being featured on acclaimed producer Starkey's boutique label Seclusiasis. More recently, she has released independently with the support of collectives and blogs such as Hebinomichi, Run the Trap, NEST HQ, Earmilk, Phuture Collective and more.
In late 2017, ill-esha began scoring her first film, a documentary titled "Beauty" directed by Christina Willings for the NationalFilm Board of Canada Documentary. The film is set to premiere in 2018.
