Brian Transeau
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Brian Wayne Transeau (born October 4, 1971) is a musician who records under the stage name BT. Born in Maryland, and classically trained from the age of thirteen, he attended Berklee School of Music in Boston for one year before dropping out and moving to Los Angeles, then back to Washington, DC.
Transeau's music was not very well received in the United States during the early 1990s, and he moved temporarily to Europe where his music was discovered by Sasha, a British DJ who introduced BT's music into the club circuit. Instantly popular, BT's 1996 album Ima helped shape the future of the burgeoning progressive house scene as it merged with, and later came to define, the trance music style. However, unlike so many artists of the trance genre, BT has lost neither his momentum nor his edge. While Ima was comprised solely of the "progressive" sound, 1997's ESCM was more experimental (although it still produced several big records for the electronic dance music scene). BT's 1999 album Movement in Still Life continued his experimentation outside of the trance genre he helped to define through an interesting dichotomy emerged between his more adventurous work and the more structured, commercially viable tracks. This album also featured a strong element of nu skool breaks, a genre he helped define with the classic Hip-Hop Phenomenon, in collaboration with Tsunami One. 2003 saw the release of Emotional Technology featuring more vocal tracks than usual, including six with vocals by Transeau. He also provided vocals on the DJ Tiësto single "Love Comes Again".
In recent years he has also moved into film scoring including Go (1999), Under Suspicion (2000), Driven (2001), The Fast and the Furious (2001), and Monster (2003). Also of note, unlike many artists working in electronica, Transeau frequently performs his music live on-stage. In 2004, he did a very popular "last night of summer" concert at BT Tower (named for British Telecom, not Transeau).
His aliases include Kaistar, Libra (as in Libra Presents Taylor), with John Selway as Dharma, with Deep Dish and John Selway as Prana, with Shaun Keng Collins as Elastic Reality, with Taylor as Elastic Chakra, with Guy Oldhams and Taylor as GTB, and with Sasha as 2 Phat Cunts.
Discography
Singles
- "Moment of Truth" (1993)
- "Relativity" (1993)
- "Embracing the Sunshine"
- "Loving You More" featuring Vincent Covello (1995)
- "Blue Skies" featuring Tori Amos (1996)
- "Divinity" (1996)
- "Quark" (1997)
- "Flaming June" (1997)
- "Love, Peace & Grease" (1997)
- "Remember" (1997)
- "Shineaway" (1997)
- "Believer" (1999)
- "Godspeed" (1999)
- "Mercury and Solace" (1999)
- "Fibonacci Sequence" (2000)
- "Never Gonna Come Back Down" (2000)
- "Dreaming" (2000)
- "Somnambulist (Simply Being Loved)" (2003)
Albums
- Ima (1995)
- ESCM (1997)
- Movement in Still Life (1999)
- Emotional Technology (2003)
EPs
- Still Life In Motion (2001)
- The Technology (2004)
Compilations
- R&R (Rare & Remixed) (2001) - A collection of BT's remix work.
- 10 Years In the Life (2002) - "Best of" album.
Remixes
- B-Tribe, "Nanita (A Spanish Lullaby)" (1995)
- Shiva, "Freedom" (1995)
- Diana Ross, "Take Me Higher" (1995)
- Cabana, "Bailando Con Lobos" (1995)
- Grace, "Not Over Yet" (1995)
- Wild Colour, "Dreams" (1995)
- Mike Oldfield, "Let There Be Light" (1995)
- Billie Ray Martin, "Running Around Town" (1995)
- Seal, "I'm Alive" (1995)
- Gipsy Kings, "La Rumba De Nicolas" (1996)
- Billie Ray Martin, "Space Oasis" (1996)
- Tori Amos, "Talula" (1996)
- Tori Amos, "Putting the Damage On" (1997 - Unreleased)
- Dina Carrol, "Run To You" (1997)
- The Crystal Method, "Keep Hope Alive" (1997)
- Paul Van Dyk, "Forbidden Fruit" (1997)
- Deep Dish, "Stranded" (1997)
- Madonna, "Drowned World/Substitute For Love" (1998)
- Lenny Kravitz, "If You Can't Say No" (1998)
- DJ Rap, "Bad Girl" (1998)
- Depeche Mode, "It's No Good" (1998 - Unreleased)
- Sarah McLachlan, "I Love You" (1999)
- Tom Jones, "She's A Lady" (2000)
- Sarah McLachlan, "Hold On" (2001)
- Korn, "Here to Stay" (2002)
- The Doors, "Break on Through (To the Other Side)" (2004) w/ additional production by Burufunk and Carmen Rizzo
Film appearances & scores
- The Jackal (1997) - "Shineaway" (with Richard Butler)
- Go (1999) - Complete score, "Believer"
- Under Suspicion (2000) - Complete score
- Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000) - "Down"
- Driven (2001) - Score, "Satellite"
- Tomb Raider (2001) - "The Revolution"
- The Fast and the Furious (2001) - Complete score, "Nocturnal Transmission"
- American Pie 2 (2001) - "Anomaly-Calling Your Name" (Libra Presents Taylor)
- Zoolander (2001) - (removed his name, uncredited), "Madskillz-Mic Chekka (Remix)"
- Sweet November (2001) - "Shame (Ben Grosse Remix)"
- Blade 2 (2002) - "Tao Of The Machine" (with The Roots)
- The Core (2003) - "Sunblind"
- Monster (2003) - Complete score
- Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (2004) - "Superfabulous (Scott Humphrey Radio Mix)"
- The Underclassman (2005) - Complete score
- Stealth (2005) - Complete score
Video game appearances & scores
- Die Hard Trilogy 2: Viva Las Vegas (1999) - Complete score
- Frequency (2001) - "Smartbomb"
- SSX Tricky (2001) - "Smartbomb (Plump's Vocal Mix)"
- Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (2001) - "Madskillz-Mic Chekka"
- Wipeout Fusion (2002) - "Smartbomb (Plump DJs Remix)"
- ATV Offroad Fury 2 (2002) - "The Revolution"
- Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions (2002) - Complete score
- Need for Speed: Underground (2003) - "Kimosabe" (with Wildchild)
- Amplitude (2003) - "Kimosabe" (with Wildchild)
- Dance Dance Revolution Extreme (2004) - "Simply Being Loved (Somnambulist)"
- Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 (2004) - Complete score
Sample CDs
- Breakz from the Nu Skool (2002)
- Twisted Textures (2002)
External links
- BT's official website (http://www.btmusic.com)
- Official Unofficial Website (http://www.btnetwork.org)
- Electric Sky Church Music: Full BT Discography (http://folk.uio.no/ulfb/odd/bt.htm)
- BT (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0117741/) at the Internet Movie Database