Biography
Benjamin Speed, recording as Mr. Speed, first began producing tracks on a personal computer in 1998. While completing his Music Technology degree at Adelaide University he issued two EPs, Speed Presents: Mr Tappin' Fresh and Speed Presents: The Other Half of Humanity. A 2001 meeting with Tyson Hopprich, who performs as DJ Tr!p, resulted in the formation of the electro/hip-hop duo the New Pollutants. Speed supplied raps, beats, and production for the pair’s albums Hygene Atoms (2002) and Urban Professional Nightmares (2004). The duo also created a new score for the 1927 silent science-fiction classic Metropolis; their Metropolis Rescore premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival to widespread critical praise. Speed subsequently started writing music for short films, chiefly in collaboration with the People’s Republic of Animation, and relocated to Sydney to undertake a Master’s in Screen Composing at the Australian Film Television and Radio School. He continued releasing solo material online, cultivating a skewed, faintly surreal geeky hip-hop sound on his MySpace page. Australian label Creative Vibes discovered the tracks and offered a deal that yielded the 2007 solo album The Dreamer, a title Speed chose because every song had been sparked by prophetic, lucid, or ordinary waking dreams. He kept scoring films, among them the 2009 short animated adaptation Street Angel, drawn from the comic of the same name.
Singles