Kevin Blechdom

Kevin Blechdom, born Kristen Erickson, ranks among the boldest and most inventive figures shaping experimental electronic music. She launched her recording career at Mills College alongside Blevin Blectum as the duo Blectum from Blechdom while both were enrolled in computer-music studies. Using self-built software, the pair stripped away the field’s customary scholarly tone and substituted playful childlike noises, cartoonish sound effects, and deliberately abrasive structures. Despite vocal objections from traditional academic composers, their album The Messy Jesse Fiesta earned a second-place award from Ars Electronica in 2001 and appeared on Deluxe Records. Following the pair’s acrimonious and widely publicized breakup in 2002—they would reunite six years afterward—Blechdom issued several solo projects on small-run imprints and Tigerbeat6, shifting focus toward merging live acoustic instruments with programmed electronics. Selections from those earlier efforts, together with fresh material that included a poignant take on Tina Turner’s “Private Dancer,” were gathered on the 2003 release Bitches Without Britches for Chicks on Speed Records and the 2005 album Eat My Heart Out. Late in 2008 she joined Eugene Chadbourne to create The Chaddom Blechbourne Experience, a playful collection built around banjo that featured traditional numbers such as “Alabama Jubilee” and “Graveyard” alongside deliberately incongruous mash-up renditions pairing the Beach Boys with Violent Femmes and Kylie Minogue with Mystikal. Sonig issued ForGentlemania in spring 2009, extending her turn toward predominantly acoustic textures.