Tim Wright was active as a musician and composer from the early 1990s until his death in 2025, working predominantly at the experimental end of the spectrum of

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

and

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance musi ...

. Besides his birth name, Wright worked under various names, most notably Germ. He also worked under the name Tube Jerk, a solo project. He was a founding member of

Sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...

, a five-piece experimental rock/jazz/electronic group. Other pseudonyms he has used include Pin, Moondog, Asphere, Speed Baby.

Germ

Wright's first commercially available releases were under the pseudonym Germ. Described as "one of the most influential, under-recognized forces of innovation in the European experimental electronic music scene" (Sean Cooper,

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

), Germ was initially a solo bedroom project but grew with the aid of engineer John Dalby at Finsbury Park Studios to encompass collaborations with Hilary Jeffery (trombone), Matt Miles (double bass) and

Nicholas Bullen Nicholas Bullen (sometimes called Nik Napalm; born 1968) is an English musician and a founding member of the grindcore band Napalm Death. Biography Bullen is one of the founding members – with Miles "Rat" Ratledge – of Napalm Death, the b ...

(electric bass). Germ released three EPs and two albums, "Gone" and "Parrot" on General Productions Recordings (GPR) in 1995. Wright continues to use the Germ name for the occasional remix, the most recent being of John Richards' "Suite for Piano and Electronics" (2007 Nonclassical).

Tube Jerk

When GPR ceased trading in 1996 Wright was temporarily forced to abandon the Germ name and went on to pursue a more dance-floor friendly sound with his solo project Tube Jerk. After commissioning the Germ remix of African Nightflight's "Make up your Mind" Sean Mayo, then head of PIAS UK offshoot iLL Recordings, persuaded Wright to tailor his sound for a

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

/club audience with the Tube Jerk project. The Tube Jerk sound was instantly recognisable with its use of enormous rolling

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) ...

style bass-lines and tight house-influenced drum parts. Still active to date, two full-length albums have been released, "Shift" (2003 on Sativae Recordings) and "Fold" (1999 on iLL Recordings) as well as a number of remixes and vinyl only EPs. The two most commonly cited examples of the Tube Jerk sound are "Eight" on the album Fold, and the Tube Jerk remix of Cristian Vogel's "Whipaspank" (2000 on Novamute).

Tim Wright

The Vogel remix brought with it the attentions of

Mute Records Mute Records is a British independent record label owned and founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller (music producer), Daniel Miller. It has featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Depeche Mode, Erasure (duo), Erasure, Einstürze ...

's legendary electronic subsidiary Novamute which commissioned Wright to produce two 12" vinyl EPs "Searcher/The Walk" (2001) and "Going Down/ The Lunge" (2002) under his own name. These EPs fused a 2step or

UK garage UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by garage house and jungle production methods, but also incorporates elements from ...

rhythmic sensibility with the darkness and power of Wright's

production approach, proving a success with

and breaks audiences alike. The tracks were licensed widely, appearing on compilations from the Plump DJs "Urban Underground – The Break Beat Elite" to Player and

Remady Marc Würgler (; born on 12 December 1977), better known by his stage name Remady, is a Swiss music producer from Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. ...

's "Sweet and Sexy – How 2 Step 2" (

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

). Wright went on to record an album "Thirst" which was released on Novamute in 2004, featuring vocal contributions from Toastie Tailor and Juice Aleem (from UK hip hop group New Flesh). Remix credits under his own name include

Goldfrapp Goldfrapp were an English electronic music duo from London, formed in 1999. The duo consisted of Alison Goldfrapp (vocals, synthesiser) and Will Gregory (synthesiser). Despite favourable reviews and a short-listing for the Mercury Prize, thei ...

and Mediengruppe Telekommander. Notable live performances were at

Sónar Sónar is a festival dedicated to music, creativity and technology, founded in Barcelona in 1994 by Ricard Robles, Enric Palau, and Sergi Caballero. The festival has been divided into two parts since its inception: Sónar by Day and Sónar b ...

by Night, Barcelona 2004 and

Transmusicales Les Rencontres Trans Musicales (generally referred to as ''Les Transmusicales de Rennes'') is a music festival that lasts for 3 or 4 days. It is held annually in December. The festival takes place in Rennes, Brittany, France. Since the festival's ...

Rennes Rennes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany (administrative region), Brittany Regions of F ...

2004 where his laptop crashed in front of 12,000 people.

Sand

Parallel to his solo work Wright was also a founder member of

, a five-piece experimental rock/jazz/electronic group with Hilary Jeffery (trombone), John Richards (double and electric bass), Neil Griffiths (guitar and films) and Rowan Oliver (drums/percussion). Sand performed live for the first time at The Spotted Cow in

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

in June 1995 with drummer Ben Clark. Their early work was dominated by a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

aesthetic, with Wright's role primarily one of manipulating the acoustic sound of the instrumentalists in real time. As a relationship developed with

Soul Jazz Records Soul Jazz Records is a British record label based in London. Outside of releasing records, the label also publishes books, occasionally films and performs as a DJ set. The music releases labels from a variety of genres, including reggae, house, ...

owner Stuart Baker the sound became more focussed and guitar oriented, whilst maintaining an improvisatory approach to recording and performing. Sand have released three albums, Beautiful People Are Evil (1999 Satellite Records/

), Still Born Alive (2001 Satellite Records/

) and The Dalston Shroud (2006

) and several 12" vinyl EPs. Sand's collaboration with noted choreographer Saburo Teshigawara resulted in the creation of the piece Green which has been performed at the New National Theatre, Tokyo (2000, 2002) and the

Melbourne International Arts Festival Melbourne International Arts Festival, formerly Spoleto Festival Melbourne – Festival of the Three Worlds, then Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, becoming commonly known as Melbourne Festival, was a major international arts festi ...

(2005).

Parrot Music

Wright also worked as head engineer at Parrot Music (formerly Finsury Park Studios) in

. Described as a "private

recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for Sound recording and reproduction, recording and Audio mixing, mixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home proje ...

" it is where most of his work was recorded. He is credited as engineer on the majority of the output of UK hip hop group New Flesh (

Big Dada Big Dada is a British Record label#Imprint, independent record label imprint distributed by Ninja Tune. It was started by reputed hip hop journalist Will Ashon in 1997. It is best known for marketing of prominent British hip hop artist Roots Man ...

Personal life

He studied for a PhD in composition of

Electroacoustic music Electroacoustic music is a Music genre, genre of Western art music in which composers use recording technology and audio signal processing to manipulate the timbres of Acoustics, acoustic sounds in the creation of pieces of music. It originated a ...

at the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

in 2013. He passed away in 2025.

References

* Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/ search "Germ"

External links

Sand's website - https://myspace.com/mrsapple.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Tim British techno musicians British electronic musicians British composers Intelligent dance musicians Alumni of the University of York Living people Year of birth missing (living people)