Dntel

Dntel stands as Jimmy Tamborello's foremost individual venture, merging indie rock elements with experimental techno through emotive tunes, youthful curiosity and discovery, along with exacting precision across every layer. Since beginning activity in 1994, the project's body of work spans harsh drill'n'bass explorations, glitch-infused electro-pop, and atmospheric abstractions, yet Dntel first registered strongly via the 2001 release Life Is Full of Possibilities, praised by critics for its inventive glitch-driven production paired with indie rock earnestness. Among the album's standout tracks, "(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan" included vocals from Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard and directly inspired Tamborello and Gibbard's highly successful side effort the Postal Service, whose platinum-certified 2003 album Give Up shaped numerous electronic pop artists. Dntel maintained this collaboration-focused approach on Dumb Luck (2007) and Aimlessness (2012). Tamborello shifted back toward instrumental pieces in subsequent efforts such as the techno-leaning Human Voice (2014), and through the two 2021 albums—the ambient, folky The Seas Trees See and the crystalline electro pop of Away—he underscored the breadth and inventiveness of Dntel's sound.

Tamborello started producing music in 1989 while still a junior high school student, crafting tracks on the drum machine, sequencer, keyboard, and eight-track recorder that his songwriter and jazz musician father had acquired for him. During 1994 he issued a self-titled ambient album under the Antihouse moniker. While enrolled at Los Angeles-based Loyola Marymount University, he served as DJ, music director, and engineer at the campus station KXLU. Beginning in 1994 he performed on bass in the band Strictly Ballroom, frequently labeled "Enocore," while simultaneously establishing the synth pop outfit Figurine and tracking solo material under the Dntel name. The project's debut outing, Early Works for Me If It Works for You, came out on Phthalo in 1998. Assembled from 1994–1997 demos, the material combined wistful melodies with jittery rhythms, evoking a lo-fi American parallel to British IDM figures such as µ-ziq and Autechre. In 2000 Dntel supplied a track for the Plug Research anthology Voices in My Lunchbox and later that year put out Anywhere Anyone on the same imprint. Something Always Goes Wrong, gathering recordings that stretched back to 1994, surfaced in 2001.

Dntel's remaining 2001 album, however—the Plug Research-issued Life Is Full of Possibilities—marked the project's true breakthrough. By layering experimental production methods and abstract textures beneath vocals from guest performers such as Mia Doi Todd, Rachel Haden (that dog.), Chris Gunst (Beachwood Sparks), and additional contributors, the record helped establish benchmarks for indie electronic music. The collection's most widely embraced cut, the Gibbard-sung "(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan," appeared as a single and achieved crossover club success, aided partly by a remix from techno producer Superpitcher. In 2002 Plug Research issued an EP containing the track plus further remixes by Erlend Øye, Barbara Morgenstern, Lali Puna, and others. The song's momentum prompted a full-scale collaboration between Gibbard and Tamborello under the name the Postal Service, with the pair exchanging DAT tapes through the mail to compose material. Give Up arrived via Sub Pop in 2003 and became the label's biggest release since Nirvana's Bleach, attaining platinum status. Part of its reach stemmed from the single "Such Great Heights," which featured in multiple advertisements and television programs and received covers by numerous artists, most notably Iron & Wine on the soundtrack to the 2004 film Garden State.

Even after Give Up's impact, Tamborello and Gibbard did not immediately pursue a sequel. For Tamborello this period included programming contributions to Bright Eyes' 2004 single "Take It Easy (Love Nothing)," which peaked at number two on Billboard's U.S. Singles Chart. That same year he joined Plug Research owner Allen Avanessian in the experimental hip-hop duo Headset for the album Spacesettings. Two years afterward Tamborello blended indie pop with minimal techno on Mistake Mistake Mistake Mistake, released under the James Figurine alias. Throughout this span he also supplied remixes as Dntel for Bright Eyes, Rilo Kiley, and Grizzly Bear. Dntel resurfaced with the 2007 Sub Pop release Dumb Luck, which featured returning guest Mia Doi Todd alongside Ed Droste (Grizzly Bear), Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley), Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes), and further participants. In 2009 Phthalo issued Early Works for Me If It Works for You II, a triple-CD set compiling prior Dntel material for the label plus an extra disc of recordings made between 1998 and 2003. Remix EP Early Works, Later Versions followed in 2010, while Sub Pop put out two instrumental Dntel EPs, After Parties I and II, plus an expanded tenth-anniversary reissue of Life Is Full of Possibilities in 2011.

Aimlessness emerged on DJ Koze's Pampa Records in 2012 and included guest turns from Nite Jewel and Baths. The Postal Service reconvened in 2013; a tenth-anniversary reissue of Give Up added a disc of rarities together with two newly recorded songs featuring Jenny Lewis, after which the group completed an extensive world tour before permanently disbanding in August. Tamborello persisted with Dntel work, resulting in Human Voice on Leaving Records in 2014. Free of guest vocalists, the album leaned slightly more toward the dancefloor than earlier Dntel outings while preserving the project's characteristic melodic sensibility. Following a four-year hiatus, Dntel reappeared in 2018 with the beatless Hate in My Heart. In 2021 Dntel surfaced on Morr Music with the folk-tinged The Seas Trees See. After contributing to Todd's August remix album Ten Views of Music Life, Tamborello released Away that September, a collection of pop-inflected songs built around his own processed vocals.