Biography
Proem constitutes the longstanding solo endeavor of electronic musician Richard Bailey. Counted among the United States’ most prominent IDM creators, Bailey typically constructs pieces through elaborate patterns of glitch-laden rhythms and intensely expressive melodies, incorporating abrupt shifts and alterations. From 1999 onward he has issued more than twenty albums and EPs via respected imprints such as Merck and n5MD. After steadily sharpening his luminous, emotive style on rhythm-focused works including Socially Inept in 2004 and A Permanent Solution in 2007, Proem turned toward dark ambient and drone on recordings such as Till There's No Breath in 2009. He resumed rhythmic material with Until Here for Years in 2019.
A native of Austin, Bailey started experimenting with sound in his youth by capturing noise and drone pieces on distortion pedals, thrift-store turntables, tape decks, inexpensive keyboards, and assorted effects processors. He later shifted to computer-based production, assembling intricate beats and striking melodies inside the DOS-based tracker Modedit. After mailing demos to multiple labels, Hydrant Records released the first Proem album, Burn Plate No. 1, in 1999. The recording drew attention across the IDM community and prompted further releases. Following the Too Many Cookies EP on netlabel Monotonik in 2000, Miami-based Merck Records issued Negativ in 2001. This was followed soon after by Among Others, which n5MD released on its original preferred format, MiniDisc. Component put out the No Carrier EP in 2002, while the 2=1 12" on Merck and the Standard Naming Convention 7" on n5MD both appeared the same year. In 2004 n5MD released Proem’s liveMD[cd?] on compact disc after the project had been planned for MiniDisc, a change prompted when Sony discontinued the format. Two further full-length CDs also appeared that year—Socially Inept on Merck and Songs 4 the City Bus on Coredump—along with the digital EP Darker Still, Proem’s first dark ambient release. Merck issued the 7" singles Debone and Unravel in 2005, each containing Proem remixes of tracks by artists such as Blamstrain and Ilkae. You Shall Have Ever Been, a double CD dedicated to the late Jay Jedlicka, founder of Coredump, was released by Merck in 2006. A Permanent Solution followed on n5MD in 2007.
Till There's No Breath, issued by Nonresponse in 2009, marked Proem’s first ambient full-length and removed beats and prominent melodies in favor of drifting textures and considerably darker atmospheres. Enough Conflict, released by n5MD in 2010, returned to Proem’s customary IDM approach, yet the self-released Before It Finds You in 2013 and Modern Rope in 2018 contained some of his coldest, most haunting ambient material. In the intervening years Bailey released a series of four Vault EPs that gathered early noise and drone experiments together with unreleased tracks reaching back to his first Proem albums. Until Here for Years, the artist’s first n5MD release in nine years, appeared in 2019.
A native of Austin, Bailey started experimenting with sound in his youth by capturing noise and drone pieces on distortion pedals, thrift-store turntables, tape decks, inexpensive keyboards, and assorted effects processors. He later shifted to computer-based production, assembling intricate beats and striking melodies inside the DOS-based tracker Modedit. After mailing demos to multiple labels, Hydrant Records released the first Proem album, Burn Plate No. 1, in 1999. The recording drew attention across the IDM community and prompted further releases. Following the Too Many Cookies EP on netlabel Monotonik in 2000, Miami-based Merck Records issued Negativ in 2001. This was followed soon after by Among Others, which n5MD released on its original preferred format, MiniDisc. Component put out the No Carrier EP in 2002, while the 2=1 12" on Merck and the Standard Naming Convention 7" on n5MD both appeared the same year. In 2004 n5MD released Proem’s liveMD[cd?] on compact disc after the project had been planned for MiniDisc, a change prompted when Sony discontinued the format. Two further full-length CDs also appeared that year—Socially Inept on Merck and Songs 4 the City Bus on Coredump—along with the digital EP Darker Still, Proem’s first dark ambient release. Merck issued the 7" singles Debone and Unravel in 2005, each containing Proem remixes of tracks by artists such as Blamstrain and Ilkae. You Shall Have Ever Been, a double CD dedicated to the late Jay Jedlicka, founder of Coredump, was released by Merck in 2006. A Permanent Solution followed on n5MD in 2007.
Till There's No Breath, issued by Nonresponse in 2009, marked Proem’s first ambient full-length and removed beats and prominent melodies in favor of drifting textures and considerably darker atmospheres. Enough Conflict, released by n5MD in 2010, returned to Proem’s customary IDM approach, yet the self-released Before It Finds You in 2013 and Modern Rope in 2018 contained some of his coldest, most haunting ambient material. In the intervening years Bailey released a series of four Vault EPs that gathered early noise and drone experiments together with unreleased tracks reaching back to his first Proem albums. Until Here for Years, the artist’s first n5MD release in nine years, appeared in 2019.
Albums
