Ursula 1000

Alex Gimeno, known professionally as Ursula 1000, works as a polished American producer, multi-instrumentalist, and DJ whose sample-heavy easy-listening breakbeats echo the continental pop approach heard from Pizzicato Five through Dimitri from Paris. Early notice came his way in New York during the first years of the 2000s, and he has since released several albums—All Systems Are Go, the 2004 set Ursadelica, and 2015’s Voyeur—that display his richly cross-pollinated, cosmopolitan dance music.

Born in Brooklyn in 1977, Gimeno grew up in Miami, where he trained in commercial art and ran an underground comic-book shop before drumming for the local group 23. Drawing from his vast record holdings, he soon channeled an obsessive interest in music and pop culture into the Ursula 1000 project. He acquired turntables and a mixer, taught himself to spin, and started performing at a local college radio station as well as Miami clubs while making his own recordings. After nearly ten years as a steady presence—both behind the decks and on drums—in the Miami scene, he moved to New York City to advance his mixing and production work. He then signed with the Eighteenth Street Lounge imprint operated by D.C.’s Thievery Corporation, the label that would issue nearly all of his subsequent output. Between 1999 and 2009 he delivered four studio albums—The Now Sound of Ursula 1000 in 1999, Kinda’ Kinky in 2002, Here Comes Tomorrow in 2005, and Mystics in 2009—plus the 2007 remix collection Undressed …Remixed and two mix sets: All Systems Are Go Go in 2000 and Ursadelica in 2004.

The 2011 album Mondo Beyondo included rapper Ms. G alongside vocalists Fred Schneider of the B-52s and Thievery Corporation’s Natalia Clavier. Although his productions grew heavier and more explicitly dancefloor-directed, the playful genre-blending spirit stayed constant. In 2014 he launched both the Quentin Quatro alias and the Insect Queen Music label with the EP The Disco Quatro. He reverted to the Ursula 1000 name for 2015’s Voyeur, which featured guest spots from Mocean Worker, Lady Bunny, and Puddles Pity Party. His seventh Ursula 1000 full-length, the ’80s synth-pop-oriented Galleria, appeared on his own imprint in 2017. Two years afterward he released Esoterique, once more collaborating with guests such as Isabelle Antena, Loredana Grimaudo of Swingrowers, and additional contributors.