Biography
Born Matthew Robson on 10 September 1973 in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, the Leeds-based artist issues his music under the Random Number alias. Its stutter-step experimental electronica draws primary influence from Merzbow, favouring a core palette of discord, enmity and disharmony. The sleeve of his The Fact That I Did EP notes that the tracks were “busted and constructed” by Robson, who fuses emotive harmonies with aggressive, scattershot rhythms. The resulting pieces have earned the tags “wrong beat” and “a power tooled monster.” Robson himself attributes this wayward approach to being “working class, over-educated and underemployed,” thereby widening the perspective within an electronica milieu long shaped by white middle-class males. Releases have appeared on Fencing Flatworm, Mouthmoth, Catmobile, Fiend, Rocket Racer and Irritant, as well as Mogwai’s Rock Action imprint. Before Random Number he performed with Coping Saw, Rauschen and the introspective experimentalists Hood. The project runs parallel to Sierpinski, whose name references a Russian academic and whose sound references Bark Psychosis, My Bloody Valentine and Boards Of Canada.
Singles
