Jerry Schroeder

It takes one hell of a clever recording artist to get me to listen to ambient electronica. And that artist is Jerry Schroeder.

While I, like countless music enthusiasts, rebel against the invisible hands that force us to affix genre labels to every music act in existence, I do believe that every music act needs some kind of genre label to serve as a verbal descriptor...even if the artist in question is alone in his or her genre. In the case of Renton, WA-based Jerry Schroeder, that genre label might be something like "make-out music for robots."

Xbox 360 owners may have heard Schroeder's work without realizing it; he provided the complete sound design for the game Hexic, which comes pre-installed on the console's hard drive. The game itself, a simple puzzle title with a subdued audio aesthetic, owes much of its appeal to the dreamlike aural mixture of ambient, trip hop and dub sensibilities that underscore its comparatively garish color scheme. In fact, until I discovered this page with Schroeder's Hexophilia tracks available for download, I found myself playing Hexic just to hear the music.

If the rhythmic spookiness of Hexophilia doesn't quite do it for you, consider any of the other tracks available for listening on Schroeder's Trig.com page. Then tell your robot friends about the new make-out music you've discovered for them. They'll name their kids after you.