Dan the Automator

Dan “The Automator” Nakamura is a San Francisco-based hip-hop manufacturer whose use “Kool” Keith Thornton for the latter’s Dr. Octagon task shot him to improbable acclaim in 1996. With some ever more sophisticated conceptual projects since that time, Nakamura’s wildly imaginative productions and offbeat love of life made him among the leading numbers in the underground renaissance of alternative rap in the past due ’90s. A classically qualified violinist in his more youthful days, Nakamura rather fell deeply in love with Kraftwerk and old-school hip-hop, aswell as R&B and rock and roll & move. He started DJing as an adolescent but was discouraged from the advanced abilities of some more youthful Bay Region DJs (i.e., the types who would carry on to create the famous Invisibl Skratch Piklz collective). Nakamura rather turned his focus on crafting his personal productions, taking gigs across the Bay Region through the first ’90s, which ultimately culminated in the Dr. Octagon task in 1995. A lo-fi fusion of hip-hop beats and bizarre atmospherics on par with a number of the weirder exports through the U.K. trip-hop picture, Dr. Octagon premiered by the small Mass Recordings label in 1995 and attained an even of overground achievement increasingly uncommon in hip-hop’s pop-monopolized market when it had been reissued by DreamWorks a season afterwards. Propelled by Thornton’s pornographic rhymes and mind-bending meter, the record owed its achievement in similar measure to Nakamura’s inventive creation, which wed loping, downtempo rhythms with, by changes, weeping violins, space-born bleeps and wiggles, and rock guitar riffs. Not really Nakamura’s freshman work by an extended shot, both had actually worked well collectively (with Thornton showing up as Sinister 6000) on Nakamura’s debut Automator launch, the Better Tomorrow EP, showing up on SF’s Ubiquity label in early 1996. Nakamura’s studio room, The Glue Manufacturing plant, also offered as the workshop for recordings by Mo’ Wax’s DJ Darkness and for numerous artists around the latter’s Solesides label (especially on Latyrx’s The Recording). When Thornton didn’t tour behind his Dr. Octagon alias, Nakamura racked up a bunch of other blend and creation credits, including Primal Scream, the Eels, DJ Krush, a cooperation with Dust Sibling Mike Simpson for Cornershop (many songs on 1997’s acclaimed ONCE I WAS CREATED for the 7th Period), as well as the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (1998’s Acme). Nakamura after that teamed up with previous De La Spirit maker Prince Paul as Good looking Boy Modeling College, a mention of an bout of the Chris Elliott sitcom Get yourself a Existence. In 1999, the duo released an recording titled Therefore…How’s YOUR GIRLFRIEND?, a freewheeling hodgepodge of old-school hip-hop, new-school trip-hop, crazed sampling (including a lot of Elliott dialogue), and all-star cameos. The record designated Nakamura like a figure to view, and that status was verified with 2000’s Deltron 3030 task, a cooperation with rapper Del tha Funkee Homosapien and DJ Child Koala. The trio’s self-titled debut was a more elaborate science-fiction concept record occur a bleak and faraway upcoming, and Nakamura’s comprehensive, cinematic production provided a wealthy and believable soundtrack. That same season, Nakamura released a retooled edition of his debut EP (with many extra paths) beneath the title A FAR GREATER Tomorrow in the hip-hop-oriented label 75 Ark. In 2001, Nakamura snared his widest viewers yet using the toon music group Gorillaz, an eclectic cooperation with Blur’s Damon Albarn, musician Jamie Hewlett, Cibo Matto’s Miho Hatori, and previous Talking Minds Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth. Their hardly classifiable self-titled debut was popular on both edges from the Atlantic, heading platinum in the U.S. and spawning Nakamura’s initial major hit one, “Clint Eastwood.” Next, Nakamura came back to his Nathaniel Merriweather alias (through the Handsome Youngster Modeling School recording) for Lovage, a lounge-flavored, Serge Gainsbourg-influenced task that presented vocalists Jennifer Charles (Elysian Areas) and Mike Patton (Trust FORGET ABOUT). The Lovage recording Music to create Want to Your Aged Lady By premiered prior to the end of 2001. Nakamura kicked off 2002 by liberating his first-ever blend recording, the well-received Wanna Purchase a Monkey?: A Mixtape Program. Even though there have been many promises for any solo recording, entitled Omakase, label problems caused it to become shelved, however in 2004, the Automator teamed up with Daryl Palumba to create Mind Automatica (at least in its preliminary conception) and launch Decadence. In 2006, he created the songs for 2K7, the soundtrack towards the video game from the same name, which presented shows from E-40, Ghostface Killah, and Slim Thug (though obviously an instrumental edition was also provided).