Loading details…
Artist
Max Tundra
12+ albums
electronicexperimentalidmindieglitch
about
Max Tundra, real name Ben Jacobs, is an English multi-instrumental musician, singer and music producer. His work is predominantly electronic music but incorporates non-electronic styles and instruments. Jacobs was born in the United Kingdom and grew up taking piano lessons, but mostly enjoyed playing television theme songs and music from adverts. As a teenager, he bought a Commodore Amiga 500 and began exploring electronic music with it. He still uses this 1985 computer to this day, but only for sequencing. The sounds on Max Tundra's records come from a wide variety of sources, including real and synthetic musical instruments, arranged in dense, complex ways. Warp received one song he recorded titled "Children at Play" and released it as a single in 1998. He has released three well-received albums for Domino Records: "Some Best Friend You Turned Out To Be" (completely instrumental) released in 2000, "Mastered By Guy At The Exchange" (featuring vocals from Ben and sister Becky from the band Tunng) released in 2002 and "Parallax Error Beheads You" (just Ben on vocal duties), was released in October 2008. Other than his full length albums, he has also done remix work for bands of varying genres including Franz Ferdinand, Architecture in Helsinki, Kid606 and the Pet Shop Boys. Tundra also hosts a weekly radio show on Resonance FM, called Max Tundra's Rotogravure. He was one of the last ever musicians to record a John Peel Session. www.maxtundra.com facebook/ soundcloud Us
why this is interesting
# Max Tundra This body of work repays attention for its genuine curiosity about sound itself. Jacobs constructs intricate electronic compositions using both vintage and contemporary tools, layering textures with the precision of someone genuinely interested in *how* things fit together rather than what's fashionable. His willingness to draw from unexpected sources—television jingles, classical instrumentation, lo-fi synthesis—reflects an unguarded creative intelligence. Rather than chasing trends, he builds densely detailed miniatures that reward close listening, each track revealing new relationships between its constituent parts. The work feels self-directed and uncommercial in the best sense: made according to its own internal logic.
