Bombardier

Jason Snell ranks among the earliest American exponents of breakcore, earning recognition above all through his Bombardier alias, which welds drum'n'bass, hardcore techno, and industrial textures into an intense, cathartic hybrid. His recorded output opened in 1999 with the continuously mixed full-length Violence on Vinyl Communications together with a series of singles and EPs; over time the music shifted from a raw, punk-driven urgency toward a more nuanced and densely detailed approach shaped by his parallel work in film and his experiments with new technologies. Snell has built custom systems and software that generate music through artificial intelligence, motion sensors, and brainwave sensors, while also directing and scoring independent films and inventing a wireless video mixer that supplies live visuals for his stage appearances.

During high school Snell first combined filmmaking with music production, laying down original pieces and remixes of punk and hardcore tracks under the names Bombardier, Kamphetamine, and the 13th Hour. The Bombardier project’s initial release, the continuously mixed Violence, came out via Vinyl Communications in 1999, after which Detroit’s Low Res Records issued four of the unmixed tracks on the vinyl EP Biomech Warfare. Under all three aliases Snell placed numerous vinyl EPs on Dyslexic Response, Eupholus Records, and his own Division 13 imprint. A second continuously mixed collection, Excommunicated, appeared in 2000, followed in 2001 by the mixed CD Three the Hard Way - The Ultimate Soundclash shared with DJ Scud and N1tro. The year 2002 brought Lithium Project and Demons & Angels (both originally issued under the 13th Hour name) plus a live album; VII, built around the seven deadly sins, arrived in 2003, the Skinwalker EP in 2005, and the full-length Hiroshima in 2006. Two film soundtracks, Plasterhead and Polycarp (the latter credited solely to Snell), surfaced in 2007, while Adrenaline and the compilation Bombardier: Remastered both appeared in 2008.

After several years without new releases Snell resumed activity by issuing digital singles on a regular basis beginning in 2012 and by collaborating on a split 12" EP with WMX in 2014; material from those sessions was later gathered on the 2016 album Fury. Around the same time he launched the ambient project the Space Where She Was, first documented on the 2016 cassette PDX and then on the Ant-Zen release How to Play Dead in 2018. Bombardier’s Punisher was issued by the longstanding hardcore techno label Industrial Strength in 2019.