Otto von Schirach

Otto Von Schirach, an IDM producer, DJ, and visual artist, grew up in Miami, FL, where an early immersion in a chaotic mix of local sounds—Miami bass, gangsta rap, death metal/grindcore, and Afro-Cuban music—shaped the electronic style he still pursues. At seventeen he bought his first digital gear and quickly forged a singular, heavily distorted sonic approach. A demo reached Schematic, the Miami electro-IDM imprint, which signed him to a multi-record contract. His first album, 8000 B.C., appeared in 2001; Escalo Frio followed within months. Through steady road work and studio time he cultivated a bleaker artistic outlook, audible on the horror-themed Chopped Zombie Fungus and Global Speaker Fisting, issued in 2003 and 2004. In 2005 Schematic put out a remix collection that enlisted Jamie Lidell, Venetian Snares, the Soft Pink Truth, and labelmate Richard Devine to rework his material. An encounter with Ipecac founder and avant-garde/metal figure Mike Patton led to the eighteen-track breakcore album Maxipad DeTention, released on Ipecac in July 2006. Alongside animation and sound-design projects, he issues music under the names Blotto Von Crack Rock, Otto Von Schitpiss, and Otto Von Xerox.