Si Begg
Si Begg is an English electronic dance music DJ, musician and record producer. His recording career began in 1993 and he has used a number of different pseudonyms and band names, and released music in different styles on several record labels.
He has also recorded music for short films, television advertisements and video games and has performed sound design work for television channels including the BBC, Channel 4 and MTV. Most recently he has provided the soundtrack for the hit Netflix sitcom Lovesick.
History
Si Begg studied at Trinity School and Mid Warwickshire college, becoming interested in electronic music from an early age. Begg confessed that the first electronic-based record he ever heard was "Probably Jean Michel Jarre; my uncle used to be into his stuff, and used to play it in the car. My brother's mate's dad also had Tubular Bells and stuff like that. I remember being really into all the sounds and noises, the total futurism. And I was right into Star Wars and Tron and all those kinda kids' sci-fi things."Listening to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show in the late 1980s, Begg was introduced to early Chicago acid and bands like Warp's LFO, Cabaret Voltaire, Severed Heads and Negativland. This influenced him to move away from playing guitar and drums with schoolmates and toward creating cut-up electronica with fellow electronic musicians, under the group name Cabbage Head Collective.
Career
Begg initially gained experience working as a sound engineer in the early 1990s, helping to produce live music and studio albums for other artists, and began DJing in 1991.He began creating his own music in 1993, and a year later, released 3 EPs with techno artist and fellow Cabbage Head alumni Cristian Vogel, under the band name "Inevitable Technology". The pair later founded a record company, Mosquito, in 1997. During this time, Begg assembled a recording studio, and learned about A&R and label management.
He moved to London in the 1990s, where he met Jonathan More and Matt Black of Coldcut through the local music scene. Begg's works as Cabbage Boy were subsequently released on their Ninja Tune sub-label, Ntone.
Begg released his solo debut album Commuter World on Caipirinha Productions in 1998. He continued to release 12" singles on a variety of small independent record labels.
In 2001, he released The Mission Statement on the Mute Records subsidiary Novamute, going by the name of as S. I. Futures. This was followed by another Si Begg album, Director's Cut
Since 2005, he has also released mp3 files on Digital Distortions and further singles on another label that he founded himself, Noodles Recordings and its sub-labels, Noodles Institute of Technology and Noodles Discothèque, which he called "the stupidest recording organisation in the world". The description comes from the fact that the label releases such a wide variety of musical styles, a tactic most labels would avoid.
In addition to working as a recording artist, he also performs live DJ sets throughout Europe. He currently has two DJ residencies in London, Big Beat Boutique at Scala and Freakin the Frame at The End. He has also worked as a remixer for over 40 different electronic artists including Alloy Mental, Atmosfear, DJ Rush, Faultline, Michael Forshaw, Lamb, Little Nobody, Moguai, Radio 4, Tipper, Sven Väth, Cristian Vogel, Jennifer Delano, Neuflex, Jason Sparks, Bolz Bolz and Stewart Walker.
Begg's compositions have been featured in films, TV shows and trailers, including Ad Astra, A Quiet Place Part II, The Outsider and The Two Popes, all placed by Elephant Music.
Pseudonyms and collaborations
Begg has recorded under variety of names, both as a solo artist and in collaboration with other artists. He explains that it is a "necessity because of the way the industry kind of works. Because a lot of people want exclusive names and there's just no way I could. If there was one label that I felt was my home and I didn't want to do stuff for other labels then that would be fine, but no single label is willing to release my full output – my full kind of range. So I have to come up with these different projects all the time.",Solo recording names include:
- Si Begg
- Bigfoot
- Bigfoot Futures Ltd
- Buckfunk 3000
- Cabbage Boy / Cabbageboy
- Culture Cruncher
- Dr. Nowhere versus The Maverick DJ
- Lenny Logan / Lenny "The Stylus" Logan
- S. I. Futures
- Bigfoot & Maverick DJ
- Cabbage Head Collective
- Inevitable Technology
- State of the Art
Discography
Releases as Si Begg
Albums
- Commuter World
- Director's Cut
- Future Electronica
- Permission to Explode
- Blueprints
Singles and EPs
- Nothing is True Zen Say
- Opus EP
- Cuntok 5 EP
- Question the Nature of Your Formula
- Working on The Front Line EP
- B-Boy of Tomorrow / Strawhead
- Commuter World
- Untitled
- Network Southeast Vol. 1
- Bad Doo Doo
- Network Southeast Vol. 2
- Testosterone Testicles
- Restoration EP
- Welcome to the Discothèque
- You Aint Got this Shit in Yo Crate / Sumba Lo Remix
- Moveup
- Trigger / Lost in Time
- Buss
- John Peel Session 003
- Revolution
- The Third Paper
- Revelation
- The Fourth Paper
- The Tyranny of Pesto
- Jetlag and Tinnitus Part 1
- Jetlag and Tinnitus Part 2
- Signals 002
- Jetlag and Tinnitus Part 3
- 24 bit error''
As Bigfoot
Singles and EPs
- Franks Birthday
- I Can't Get in EP
- Sasquatch EP
As Bigfoot Futures Ltd
Singles and EPs
- Interplanetary Music
- Tommy Crunch 2
- Drumz
- Part 4 Return of the Big Mack
As Buckfunk 3000
Albums
- First Class Ticket To Telos
Singles and EPs
- Modulation
- 3000 / Economics
- In is In / Planet Shock Future Rock
- Systematic
- Fried Funk & Microchips / Planet Shock Future Rock
- There is Life on Mars
- High Volume
- Jump & Disrupt
- 2 Much Booty
As Cabbage Boy
Albums
- Genetically Modified
Singles and EPs
- Sausage Doctor EP
- Planet EP
- Molecular Millionaires
- The Lost Tapes Vol 1 1998–2000
As Culture Cruncher
Singles and EPs
- Vol. 1
- Vol. 2
- Vol. 3
- Vol. 5
As Dr. Nowhere versus The Maverick DJ
Singles and EPs
- Automated Leisure EP
As S. I. Futures
Albums
- The Mission Statement
Singles and EPs
- Freestyle Disco
- Freestyle Disco Remixes
- We are Not a Rock Band
- Eurostar
As Inevitable Technology
Singles and EPs
- Etherion EP
- Reform EP
- The Wheel EP
As State of the Art
Singles and EPs
- Feel This / Party Time
- Shifting Mercury EP
- Automatic