The Union Guest Mix: Phidippus: The Man Who Never Sleeps

PHIDIPPUS

Denver,Co

Drum and Bass

https://www.phidippusmusic.com/



BIO

Eric Salazar played his first instrument, the autoharp, as a very small child. By 1985 he joined a break dancing troop and had the chance to pop-lock. Some of the break dancing tapes he listened to were instrumental and those pieces inspired him to search for a sound that was rhythm heavy and lacking in vocals. He was sated by the recordings of Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and The Art of Noise.



By 1990, he got his hands on an Ensoniq EPS-16+ sampling workstation and proceeded to make bad music. The 1990s would also bring about rave culture and with it beats of all varieties. Eric would try to emulate these artists and by 1997, he had actually started making some acceptable music using a Power PC, Emagic Logic Audio and the Ensoniq. He sought to combine all his influences under the name Emptyhead and his efforts culminated in a CD EP entitled "Penitence" which he burned and hand labeled to be sold in local record shops. The following year he did the same thing with a CD EP etitled "Voluptuous".



He sent it out and a copy ended up in the offices of Peter Gabriel’s record label, Real World. The folks at Real World listened to it in the office while writing memos.



Still it took until the following year and remixes for New Vision Recordings and other labels in the UK to solidify his reputation. By 2000, Mercedes Automotive, Smirnoff Vodka and other companies licensed Eric's music to promote their products. Eric would launch “New Vision America”, a record label in 2002. After three singles were released, the label died a quiet death. Despite this failure, Eric pressed on and would go on to score the best-selling video game, "Belle's Beauty Boutique”. What?



In 2008 Eric released the full length CD, "ES: When I was Emptyhead - 1997-2007." The CD would garner airplay in major markets and commendations from the press, including publications like Knowledge and XLR8R. By 2010 Eric started remixing the works of major artists such as The B-52s, Summer Channel and Information Society.



Mental illness took hold in 2012 and as therapy Eric started producing music influenced by the drum & bass scene. Eric’s efforts culminated in the release of albums “170.1”, “170.2”, “170.3”,"170.4" and "170.5" under the moniker Phidippus in the years spanning 2020 to 2022. Offerings from these albums have made their way onto Nahual Records and Full Send DnB as well as others. With half a million plays on Soundcloud and thousands more on other platforms, Eric has established himself as a major artist in the electronic music scene.



When asked what kind of music he makes, Eric answers blithely, "intelligent"...