Knifehandchop

Hailing from Toronto, Billy Pollard produces plunderphonic hardcore techno as Knifehandchop, although his path began at age 15 inside a conventional rock group. Drawn to death metal, experimental noise, industrial music, and hip-hop, Pollard abandoned guitar the moment a computer arrived. Early efforts mirrored the driving hardcore techno of Alec Empire or Hellfish, yet he later aimed to fold in favored hip-hop and perhaps pop textures. Without a rapper or singer on hand, he achieved this by slicing and reassembling selections from treasured records.

Layering pop melodies across R&B selections revealed to Pollard that the work underscored the uniformity of 2000s pop, rendering Pink indistinguishable from blink-182 in his perception. Irritant issued four singles from 2000 to 2002, after which Kid 606 enlisted him for the Tigerbeat6 roster. Irritant gathered the singles together with three compilation cuts and three previously unheard pieces to form the 2003 release Bling the Noize, while Rockstopper, Pollard’s Tigerbeat6 debut, surfaced that autumn. The second album, How I Left You, appeared in 2004.