An artist bringing a singular vision to the world of electronic music, Eli Brown has brought a visceral energy to club sonics ever since his emergence on the scene in 2016. Coming up in Bristol’s famed dance community, home to pioneers of jungle, drum’n’bass, dubstep and more, Brown’s production style captures the raw atmospherics of his homeland’s icons and applies them to a blend of house, techno and full-bodied electronica, custom-built for cavernous warehouse spaces. This sound has helped him rise to prominence in a hotly-contested club scene, rapidly gaining support from the likes of Carl Cox, Adam Beyer, Calvin Harris, Alan Fitzpatrick, Solardo, Green Velvet and more.
Brown’s introduction to music came at a pivotal time for the city from which he originates, when Bristol’s dark, brooding signature electronic sound began to push to the forefront of the cultural consciousness. The uprising of high-octane breaks and bass within the city sparked inspiration in Eli Brown, pushing him to attend nights involved in the city’s fertile jungle and drum’n’bass scenes from a young age. The community’s passion for forward thinking sounds activated Brown even further; pushing him to purchase production hardware and to start the long and arduous process of teaching himself how to utilise it.
Brown’s innovative approach to club sounds roots itself in the sinister; placing the listener in the darkest sonic recesses before throwing them onto the dancefloor at breakneck speed, pairing those foreboding textures with a pulsing, destructive rhythm. This unique methodology came almost instantly, with Brown sending the very first house track that he finished anonymously to frequent tour companion Skream. Under the new moniker of Eli Brown, the track impressed the Croydon selector enough to sign a whole EP to his Of Unsound Mind imprint – igniting Brown’s foray into the house scene and leading to him locking himself away to work on 4/4 rhythms for six months. During this prolific time, Brown released music with the likes of Adam Beyer’s Truesoul, Repopulate Mars, Defected, Alan Fitzpatrick’s We Are The Brave and more.
A natural synergy with Manchester duo Solardo progressed from bookings on their Solardo Sessions stages at The Warehouse project and Hï Ibiza to real life studio sessions – sessions that, among others, birthed ‘XTC’ – the worldwide smash that garnered millions of streams and won the 2019 DJ Mag Award for Best Track. More high profile collaborations followed, namely with Calvin Harris. Tapping Eli Brown up for a collaborative EP with his Love Regenerator project, the ‘Moving EP’ came after a summer of Harris playing Eli Brown’s tracks in arenas and festivals alike, proving Brown’s capacity for the biggest stages.
Eli Brown’s penchant for dark and subversive sonics doesn’t stop with his productions. Arcane, his own label was created as a vessel to support new upcoming talent who deal in the brooding, hard-edged house and techno that inspires his own work. Releasing projects by himself and others around the world, Arcane acts as a mouthpiece for Eli Brown’s tastes; a living, breathing entity that gives a platform to his keen ear for music from across the electronic underground.
Thanks to a 2020 largely spent inside, Brown’s music has far from reached its stadium-filling potential, yet this year has been his most exciting to date. Fresh from a newly inked partnership with Polydor Records, Eli Brown’s time off the road has allowed him to fully explore the furthest reaches of his own creative vision. His first release as part of this partnership, ‘Killer’, was his third ‘Hottest Record in the World’ from Annie Mac – an ethereal cut of driving techno that acts as an invitation into a world set in Eli Brown’s own design. Traversing ghostlike textures and a rumbling low end, ‘Killer’ is the perfect introduction to Eli Brown – an artist with a completely 360 mindset to creation, pooling together disparate influences from the rich musical history of his Bristol hometown and beyond to create something unique, but no less devastating.
A raw and caustic talent with a widescreen imagination that spans audio and visual, Eli Brown will continue to cement his reputation as one of dance music’s most subversive and forward thinking producers over the next 12 months and beyond.
