What is BehindTheBeat?
Listen and enjoy our library of over 600 audio portraits of artists and their albums for free.
These finely edited features present the music and voices of artists discussing their songs, their sounds, their bands, their lives and their creative influences.
Search below by artist name or by genre to hear your favorite musicians, and to discover new ones!
Now with over 2,500 audio segments bringing music fans, musicians and music closer together.
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Latest Profiles
- Chuck Wicks: Turning Point
- Green River Ordinance: Fifteen
- Jack Wall: Call of Duty, Black Ops III
- Black Violin: Stereotypes
- Glen Hansard: Didn’t He Ramble
- Dominik Scherrer: The Missing
- Jonathan McReynolds: Life Music, Stage Two
- Bobby Long: Ode To Thinking
- Alicia Witt: Revisionary History
- Angaleena Presley: American Middle Class
- Pat McGee: Pat McGee
- John Anderson: Goldmine
- Whitey Morgan: Sonic Ranch
- Anat Cohen: Luminosa
- Meredith Monk: Piano Songs
- Gretchen Peters: Blackbirds
- Louise Goffin: Appleonfire
- Mohammed Fairouz: Follow, Poet
- Michael J. Smith & Friends: The Spirit of Christmas
- Patty Larkin: Still Green
- Somi: The Lagos Music Salon
- The Barr Brothers: Sleeping Operator
- Lee Ann Womack: The Way I’m Livin’
- Montell Jordan: Captured
- Marco Benevento: Swift
Author Archives: John Rieger
DJ Assault: Off the Chain for the Y2K
DJ Assault, aka Craig Adams, is the Ayatollah of "Ghetto Tech", the Motor City club sound that marries the turntablist’s art with lyrics at the frontier of raunch. With its whacky chipmunk voices chanting x-rated lyrics at break-neck tempos, the … Continue reading
Posted in Electronic
Tagged DJ Assault, Intuit-Solar
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Arturo Sandoval: For Love or Country, the Arturo Sandoval Story
Virtuoso Cuban Trumpeter Arturo Sandoval has another achievement to add to his Grammy-winning jazz albums and his stints with great symphony orchestras: a soundtrack album from the HBO movie of his own life. The subject of this Tom Sawyer-esque tribute … Continue reading
Posted in Latin
Tagged Arturo Sandoval, Atlantic
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Red Snapper: Our Aim Is to Satisfy Red Snapper
London’s Red Snapper is no stranger to modern studio tricks, but what sets this CD apart from the dance/electronic herd is the solid playing of Richard Thair on drums, David Ayers on guitar, and Ali Friend on acoustic double bass. … Continue reading
Posted in Electronic
Tagged Matador, Red Snapper
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Plena Libre: Mas Libre
Since 1994, Gary Nuñez and Plena Libre have almost single-handedly rescued Puerto Rico’s national rhythm, Plena, from obscurity and placed it solidly on the Latin charts. The tight, thirteen-piece orchestra’s eighth release, “Mas Libre”, deftly transforms this once-rural folk form … Continue reading
Alf Clausen: Go Simpsonic with the Simpsons
In two collections of music from “The Simpsons”, “Songs in the Key of Springfield” and “Go Simpsonic with the Simpsons”, music director Alf Clausen gives a master class in composing for television. An admirer of Nelson Riddle and Henry Mancini, … Continue reading
Broadcast: Extended Play Two
This Birmingham, U.K., foursome combine pop sensibilities with experimental oddities to produce dreamy, thoughtful music. Their new, five-song EP was recorded in their small home studio (in the bedroom), but is by no means lo-fi. Released: 9/19/2000 Label: Tommy Boy … Continue reading
The Pharcyde: Plain Rap
The Pharcyde’s eccentric 1992 debut album changed the pattern of West Coast Hip-Hop, and helped hoist L.A. out of what one critic called “its bullets and bitches pigeon hole”. “Plain Rap”, The Pharcyde’s third CD after a five year silence … Continue reading
Posted in Urban-Hip-hop
Tagged Edel America Records, The Pharcyde
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Juno Reactor: Shango
Juno Reactor’s Ben Watkins is a musical world traveler. He’s camped in the middle of the Namibian desert to study the music of the Bushmen. On Shango, named for the Nigerian god of thunder, he blends the tribal evocations of … Continue reading
Photek: Solaris
Rupert Parkes, better known as Photek, has been a dominant figure in Drum and Bass, but his latest effort, “Solaris”, is a departure. He explores other textures and tempos, from ethereal sonic washes to the distinctive “house” vocals of Robert … Continue reading
Black Eyed Peas: Bridging the Gap
Known for their extravagant live shows, featuring break dancing and live musicians, the Black Eyed Peas paint hip-hop culture with a broad palette. Taboo is Native American and Hispanic, apl.de.ap hails from the Philippines, and will.i.am is from East L.A. … Continue reading
Posted in Urban-Hip-hop
Tagged Black Eyed Peas, Interscope
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