Thievery Corporation

Emerging during the mid-1990s from Washington, D.C., Thievery Corporation quickly rose among the leading names in relaxed, lounge-oriented electronic music. Their early work centered on abstract instrumental tracks at midtempo, positioned between trip-hop and acid jazz, yet The Mirror Conspiracy from 2000 broadened the palette by incorporating vocalists and live players. That album, their strongest U.S. seller, drew heavily from bossa nova and soul. Beginning with The Richest Man in Babylon in 2002, the group infused subsequent releases with explicit political content that underscored an antiwar, pro-humanity outlook alongside a celebration of global cultures. Their explorations also encompassed Indian classical elements, hip-hop, and reggae. After the dark psychedelic tone of The Cosmic Game in 2005, Radio Retaliation arrived in 2008 as a protest statement that folded in Afrobeat and go-go, while the Jamaica-recorded The Temple of I & I from 2017 focused squarely on dub and reggae. Symphonik, issued in 2020, presented reworked live staples performed with Prague’s FILMharmonic Orchestra.

Rob Garza and Eric Hilton handled production duties for several well-received 1996 singles issued on the duo’s own Eighteenth Street Lounge label, which took its name from their Washington, D.C. bar and nightclub. Although earlier recognition had been limited to acid jazz and rare-groove DJ circles, wider notice followed when a cut from one of their initial 12-inch releases appeared on Kruder & Dorfmeister’s contribution to Studio K7’s DJ-Kicks series. Comparable in approach to the Viennese pair, Thievery Corporation thereafter attracted a broader listenership among DJs and dedicated headphone enthusiasts.

Their first full-length, Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi, surfaced in limited form in 1996 and received wider distribution the next year, alongside the Washington, D.C.-focused electronica compilation Dubbed Out in DC, both on ESL. After inking a deal with Britain’s 4AD imprint, the pair began work on a follow-up LP only to delay its completion when their tapes were taken during a mugging. The interim remix collection Abductions & Reconstructions and their own DJ-Kicks installment both appeared in 1999. The Mirror Conspiracy, their second proper album, followed in 2000 and placed greater weight on live instrumentation and guest vocals from Pam Bricker and Bebel Gilberto. Their rising profile led to an invitation to curate the 2001 Verve compilation Sounds from the Verve Hi-Fi, which gathered vintage Latin jazz and bossa nova selections from the 1960s and 1970s.

Returning to original material, they delivered The Richest Man in Babylon in 2002, their first effort to embed protest themes, with vocal contributions from Emiliana Torrini and Shinehead. The mix album Outernational Sound and the remix EP Babylon Rewound both surfaced in 2004. That same year, “Lebanese Blonde” featured on the commercially successful Garden State soundtrack, which later earned a Grammy. The Cosmic Game arrived in 2005 with a darker, more psychedelic character and appearances from Perry Farrell, the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne, and David Byrne, followed by the remix set Versions in 2006. As the election cycle neared, Radio Retaliation emerged in September 2008. Culture of Fear, released in 2011 and featuring Mr. Lif, combined social commentary with dub textures. Saudade, issued in 2014, shifted direction toward bossa nova and included vocalists LouLou Ghelichkhani, Karina Zeviani, and Elin Melgarejo.

For their eighth studio album, The Temple of I & I in 2017, the pair temporarily based themselves in Jamaica to immerse fully in dub and reggae influences. Additional tracks from those sessions surfaced the following year and were paired with remixes on the 2018 companion release Treasures from the Temple. In 2017 they also helped reopen the performance space at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts alongside emerging classical musicians. To mark the occasion, they re-recorded several live staples with Prague’s FILMharmonic Orchestra, issuing the results on Symphonik in 2020. A streaming-only collection of yoga-oriented remixes appeared in 2022.