Raz Mesinai
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Reuel Emanuel “Raz” Mesinai (born 1973) is an American record producer, musician, composer, artist, writer and educator from
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. He has released recordings since 1989 under the monikers Badawi, Sub Dub, Ghost Producer, Psy Co., and Raz Mesinai and is the founder of the "Underground Producers Alliance", an artist development agency in New York City co-founded by Scott Harding.


Biography

Mesinai began experimenting with cassettes and sampling at the age of 10, and at 14, was discovered by musician Juma Sultan while creating music for breakdancers on the streets of New York City. Juma gave him a Multi-Vox Tape Echo machine and a ribbon microphone to produce his early work. In the early 1990s, Mesinai formed the group Sub Dub with John Ward. The group is credited as an integral part of the founding of the
illbient Illbient is a genre of electronic music and an art movement that originated among hip hop-influenced experimental musicians from New York City in the early 1990s. The word "illbient" combines the hip hop slang term "ill" and "ambient"; DJ Olive a ...
genre. His 2001 album, ''The Unspeakable'', featured unreleased music that he composed for the '' Hellraiser 6'' soundtrack. The material was rejected after being considered "too scary for the movie".
The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created and primarily written by the American author and former police reporter David Simon for the cable network HBO. The series premiered o ...
described Mesinai's ''Soldier of Midian'' (2001) as "explod ngwith Middle Eastern percussion, Persian horn samples and dulcimer licks played by an ensemble of genuine Middle Eastern musicians, then cut up with a major dose of studio tricnology." Mesinai's album ''Badawi: The Heretic of Ether'' (1999), was used as the template for the score to the blockbuster film, ''Black Hawk Down''. This experience led him to coin the term "Score Design" and led to work creating music for major motion pictures, including '' The Fountain,
Black Swan The black swan (''Cygnus atratus'') is a large Anatidae, waterbird, a species of swan which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. Within Australia, the black swan is nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent ...
, The Wrestler'', and ''
A Late Quartet ''A Late Quartet'' (released in Australia as ''Performance'') is a 2012 American drama film directed by Yaron Zilberman and co-written by Zilberman and Seth Grossman. The film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Catherine Keener, M ...
''. Mesinai has described Score Design as "conceptualiz ngscores that are not calling for the traditional musical score that composers and musicians are used to...It's similar to sound design, where you create the atmosphere and develop sounds, hopefully from scratch, to implement the overall atmosphere and concept of the film." In 2004, Mesinai was awarded the Sundance Composers Lab Fellowship, where he worked on scores for
Sundance A Sun Dance is a Native American ceremony. Sun dance or Sundance may also refer to: Places ;Canada * Sundance, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * Sundance, Manitoba, a ghost town ;United States * Sundance, New Mexico, a census-designated pl ...
Directors. In 2016, Mesinai released a collaborative film that he directed and scored with Jonathan Uliel Saldanha, titled ''Tunnel Vision.'' The film and its music explores subterranean frequencies and was recorded in tunnels and caves, and mixed as a dub record. ''Tunnel Vision'' explores a narrative format created by Mesinai called "Dub Fiction," or "a form of storytelling utilizing various mediums of modern technology to create elastic narratives which can be manipulated and, essentially, remixed by others." Mesinai has taught master classes in music production, sound design and film scoring at
UCSD The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing ...
,
The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...
, Dub Spot, and
NYU New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a non-denominational all-male institutio ...
. He founded th
Underground Producers Alliance (UPA)
and now teaches for the school exclusively. Mesinai has received commissions from The Lincoln Center Festival,
Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...
,
Kronos Quartet The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classical musi ...
, Ethel, and The Kitchen and has officially remixed artists such as
Burning Spear Winston Rodney Order of Distinction, OD (born 1 March 1945), better known by the stage name Burning Spear, is a Jamaican roots reggae singer-songwriter, vocalist, and musician. Burning Spear is a Rastafarian movement, Rastafarian and one of the ...
, Shackleton, and
Arto Lindsay Arthur Morgan "Arto" Lindsay (born May 28, 1953) is an American guitarist, singer, record producer and experimental composer. He was a member of the pioneering 1970s no wave group DNA, which featured on the 1978 compilation '' No New York''. In ...
. In addition to his musical output, Mesinai draws and writes comic books including issues for
Marvel Marvel may refer to: Business * Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company ** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment ** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe ** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comics ...
, as well as album artwork for artists such as
Kode9 Steve Goodman, known as Kode9 (born 1973) is a Scottish electronic music artist, DJ, and founder of the Hyperdub record label. He was one of the founding members of the early dubstep scene with his late collaborator The Spaceape. He has releas ...
and
The Spaceape Stephen Samuel Gordon (17 June 1970Melissa Bradshaw"The Spaceape obituary" ''The Guardian'', 24 October 2014. – 2 October 2014), known as The Spaceape, was a British poet and MC. He is known for his work on the electronic music label Hyperdub ...
. In 2015, Mesinai founded the artist development organization the "Underground Producers Alliance", also acting as a school for teaching extended techniques in music production and sound design to professionals, along with co founders producers Scotty Hard (
Jungle Brothers Jungle Brothers are an American hip hop trio composed of Michael Small (Mike Gee), Nathaniel Hall (Afrika Baby Bam) and Sammy Burwell (DJ Sammy B). Hailed as pioneers of the fusion of jazz, hip-hop, and house music, they were the first hip-hop g ...
, New Kingdom), Prince Paul (
De La Soul De La Soul ( ) is an American hip hop music, hip hop group formed in the village of Amityville on Long Island, New York (state), New York in 1988. They are best known for their eclectic sampling, eccentric lyrics, and contributions to the evoluti ...
), Honeychild Coleman ( The Slit)) and HPrizm (Anti Pop Consortium).


Discography

;As Raz Mesinai * ''The Unspeakable'' (2001) * ''Before the Law'' (2001) * ''Resurrections for Goatskin'' (2003) * ''Cyborg Acoustics'' (2004) * Death Notes vol.1 (2018) * Death Notes vol.2 (2018) ;As Badawi * ''Bedouin Sound Clash'' (1996) * ''Jerusalem Under Fire'' (1997) * ''The Heretic of Ether'' (1999) * ''Soldier of Midian'' (2001) * ''Clones & False Prophets'' (2003) * ''Safe'' (2006) * ''Unit of Resistance'' (2007) ;As Sub Dub * Babylon Unite (EP) 1994 * Dawazangpo (EP) 1995 * Sub Dub (1996) * Dancehall Malfunction (1997) * Sub Dub Original Masters (2001)


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mesinai, Raz 1973 births Living people Illbient American ambient musicians American dub musicians American sound designers American record producers Tzadik Records artists American people of Israeli descent