Biography
Daum Bentley’s Freaky Chakra outfit joined the West Coast psychedelic groove wave that also featured Tranquility Bass, Single Cell Orchestra and Spacetime Continuum, merging funk, earthy techno and touches of vintage industrial music on the 1995 debut album Lowdown Motivator. Bentley, who had favored hip-hop and industrial sounds before the first wave of rave culture reached San Francisco in the late eighties, started producing tracks in the early nineties and performed in the initial lineups of Miguel Fierro’s Single Cell Orchestra. Through Fierro he met Tranquility Bass member Mike Kandel, handed him a demo and saw his first Freaky Chakra release, the single “Halucifuge,” appear on Kandel’s Exist Dance Records.
Shortly afterward he joined the fast-rising independent label Astralwerks, which issued Lowdown Motivator in 1995. Assembled from pieces tracked as far back as 1990, the album drew enthusiastic critical response, as did the intense collaborative set Freaky Chakra Vs. Single Cell Orchestra. Bentley returned in 1997 with the EP Year 2000; his next full-length studio album, Blacklight Fantasy, followed a year after that.
Shortly afterward he joined the fast-rising independent label Astralwerks, which issued Lowdown Motivator in 1995. Assembled from pieces tracked as far back as 1990, the album drew enthusiastic critical response, as did the intense collaborative set Freaky Chakra Vs. Single Cell Orchestra. Bentley returned in 1997 with the EP Year 2000; his next full-length studio album, Blacklight Fantasy, followed a year after that.
Albums
