Tim Exile (or Exile) is the recording alias of Timothy Charles Shaw, a producer and performer of electronic music spanning

drum and bass Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated as DnB, D&B, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast Break (music)#Breakbeat (element of music), breakbeats (typically 165–185 Tempo, beats per minute) with heavy Bass (music) ...

, IDM,

breakcore Breakcore is a style of electronic dance music that emerged from jungle, hardcore, and drum and bass in the mid-to-late 1990s. It is characterized by very complex and intricate breakbeats and a wide palette of sampling sources played at high ...

and

gabber Gabber ( ; ) is a style of electronic dance music and a subgenre of Hardcore (electronic dance music genre), hardcore, as well as the surrounding subculture. The music is more commonly referred to as hardcore, and is characterised by fast beats ...

Early life

Exile was educated at

Rendcomb College Rendcomb College is a public school (English private boarding and day school) for pupils aged 3–18, located in the village of Rendcomb five miles north of Cirencester in Gloucestershire, England. Rendcomb College was founded in 1920 by ...

from 1990 to 1997 and studied philosophy at

Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...

, where he wrote his dissertation on the difference between music and noise. He then completed a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

within the Durham University Department of Music, graduating in 2002.

History

A classically trained

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ist, he began experimenting with electronic music aged 12, and gained his first drum and bass release in 1999. In the following years he released mostly for the legendary

Moving Shadow Moving Shadow is an English breakbeat hardcore, jungle and drum and bass record label which was founded in 1990 by Rob Playford. History The label began in 1990, operating from Playford's Stevenage home. Playford had become a focal point for ...

imprint, and

John B John Bryn Williams (born 1977), known as John B, is an English disc jockey and electronic music producer. He is widely recognised for his eccentric clothing, wild hair, and his production of several cutting edge drum and bass tracks. John B ...

Beta Recordings Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; or ) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Ancient Greek, beta represented the voiced bilabial plosive . In Modern Greek, it represen ...

, having met John B at Durham. After the completion of his

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

degree, he went on to study an MA in electroacoustic composition at Durham. Perhaps unsurprisingly, his drum and bass grew increasingly experimental, and his debut LP (''Pro Agonist'', 2005) was released by

Mike Paradinas Michael Robert Paradinas (born 26 September 1971), better known by his stage name μ-Ziq (pronounced "music" or mu-zik), is an English electronic musician from Wimbledon, London. He was associated with the electronic style intelligent dance mus ...

Planet Mu Planet Mu is an English electronic music record label created and run by Mike Paradinas. The label started out as a subsidiary of Virgin Records then Paradinas set up the label independent of Virgin. After releasing intelligent dance music, the ...

label, more commonly associated with the IDM scene. Unsatisfied with the possibilities of conventional DJing, Exile programmed his own performance tools (at first using

Pure Data Pure Data (Pd) is a visual programming language developed by Miller Puckette in the 1990s for creating interactive computer music and multimedia works. While Puckette is the main author of the program, Pd is an open-source software, open-source ...

and running into difficulties, he then switched to

Reaktor Reaktor is a graphical modular software music studio developed by Stephan Schmidt and Volker Hinz as founders of Native Instruments (NI). It allows musicians and sound specialists to design and build their own instruments, samplers, effects a ...

) to allow improvisational live sets, which led to official work for

Native Instruments Native Instruments is a German company that develops, manufactures, and supplies music software and hardware for music production, sound design, performance, and DJing. The company's corporate headquarters and main development facilities are lo ...

. In 2009 he contributed a cover of a Jamie Lidell song to the ''

Warp20 (Recreated) ''Warp20 (Recreated)'' is a compilation album released by Warp Records in 2009. It contains covers of Warp artists, such as Aphex Twin, LFO (British band), LFO, Boards of Canada and Grizzly Bear (band), Grizzly Bear, by other Warp artists, such a ...

'' compilation. He also toured the US in late 2009 supporting and collaborating live with

Imogen Heap Imogen Jennifer Jane Heap ( ; born 9 December 1977) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and entrepreneur. She is considered a pioneer in pop music, particularly electropop, and in music technology. While attending the ...

. In 2012, at Sonar Festival in Barcelona, he teamed up with Jamie Lidell,

DJ Shiftee Samuel Morris Zornow (born January 27, 1986), better known as DJ Shiftee, is a New York City based DJ and turntablist. Career Zornow is the 2009 DMC World DJ Finals Champion, the only American DJ to date to have won the DMC Battle for World ...

, Mr. Jimmy and Jeremy Ellis to form Mostly Robot, a new collaborative project. In 2016, he launched Endlesss, a collaborative music-making app inspired by his Flow Machine, which he had previously used in live performances. A desktop version of Endlesss was released in 2020. In July of 2023, it was discovered that he had developed a tumor in relation to an unspecified bladder cancer that would then be removed in August of the same year; however, the tumor was apparently larger than expected when removed. The surgery was completed with no complications, though more treatment was expected to occur throughout 2023.

Discography

*''Hanzo Steel Cuts EP'' (Mosquito, 2004) *''Pro Agonist'' (

, 2005) (as Exile) *''Tim Exile's Nuisance Gabbaret Lounge'' (

, 2006) *''Listening Tree'' ( Warp, 2009)Ranta, Alan (19 March 2009).
Tim Exile: Listening Tree review
.

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...

. Retrieved on 14 June 2010. *''Harmuni EP'' (Leisure System, 2013)

Early life

History

Discography

References

External links