Infected Mushroom and Liquid Stranger

Both members had a similar musical upbringing, undertaking classical piano at the start of their music endeavors. Eisen reoriented his focus to electronic music experimenting with various compositional software and eventually entered into the DJ scene. Duvdevani also departed from classical music; however, he shifted his attention towards punk rock and heavy metal, later joining Israeli punk band Enzyme to play keyboards.

Eisen went through multiple manifestations of bedroom elctro-trance projects before meeting Duvdevani who had just retired his plan to pursue a career as a metal musician in India. The two did not start playing together until 1996 and initially performed and released material under the name Shidapu & Duvdev. They eventually adopted the moniker Infected Mushroom and issued their studio debut “The Gathering” to a world wide audience in 1999. The album featured samples ranging from movies (“Independence Day”, “Batman & Robin”, “Contact” etc...), to music (Primus’ “Tommy the Cat”) and even video games (Grand Theft Auto). The album sported an overall dark atmospheric tone and is largely recognized as one of the first recordings to introduce Israeli psytrance to the mainstream.

“Classical Mushroom” came out in 2000 and was seen as a step forward for the band. It did not necessarily offer any dramatic stylistic changes, but rather refined the sound they had been working on in the past. However their follow up album “B.P. Empire” did showcase a revamping of style, particularly on the track “Dancing With Kadafi”, which placed emphasis on classical piano music as well as middle-eastern melodic structure. Infected Mushroom’s 4th album: “Converting Vegetarians” continued with the trend of experimentation. It was a double disc album with one disc dedicated to their recognizable trance induced sound and the other disc dedicated to new sounds like downtempo, electro-pop, and avant-garde.

Infected Mushrooms’ 2004 effort “IM The Supervisor” was a commercial hit, selling more albums than any of their prior releases. It is an album often attributed for codifying the seamless fusion of psychedelic music with electronica. Also this year the band located to Los Angeles,California and by 2007 recruited 3 new members in the group: guitarists Thomas Cunningham and Erez Netz and percussionist Rogério Jardim.

In 2007 the group released their most elaborate and musically diverse album to date “Vicious Delicious”. With the recruitment of the band’s new members the sound became fuller and more complex, featuring Spanish lead guitar and hip-hop beats. The band’s 7th album “Legend of the Black Shawarma” was released in 2009 and was followed by a three year tour. The band returned to the recording studio after their extensive tour and put out “Army of Mushrooms” in 2012.

Born Martin Stääf on the West Coast of Sweden, Liquid Stranger’s first musical excursion was playing classical piano from a very early age. Stääf was a natural talent on the instrument, and was playing concerts by the time he was six years old, however, as he neared his tenth birthday he started becoming more interested in synthesizers than Stravinsky. By the time he hit his teens he’d completely lost interest in classical music and began producing electronica in his every waking hour. By the time Stääf was 19 he’d formed Necton with fellow producer Patrik Olsén, but while the band signed to Spirit Zone Recordings and released two studio albums, Stääf was beginning his solo career, releasing an abundance of singles and compilation records on a number of different record labels.

Necton folded in 2003, and it was then that Stääf made his debut as Liquid Stranger, releasing his debut single “It Came From The Dessert” the very same year. Ever Since then, Stääf has remained one of the most prolific electronica artists of this millennium, releasing six studio albums, eight E.Ps and nine singles in a little over a decade. His music has been a major influence on sounds and scenes ranging from dubstep to funky house to ambient and everything in between, and for that, he comes highly recommended.