About John Maxwell Hobbs
John Maxwell Hobbs is an electronic musician based in Oxford who has been working with computer multimedia and telecommunications for more than eighteen years.
Although most of his work is solo, he has played with a variety of musicians, including Rhys Chatham, David Gamper of the Deep Listening Band, Bronx Style Bob, DJ David Azarch of the Mudd Club, and on one late, drunken evening, Cheeta Chrome of the Dead Boys.
As a producer, he has worked with DJ Spooky, Glen Branca, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Diamanda Galas, David Hykes, every member of the New York Dolls, and more.
He is known for the Daily Ambience project in which he recorded and released a new piece of music every day for a year.
His contributions to the early days of music on the web have been documented in the book Virtual Music: How the Web Got Wired for Sound by William Duckworth.
From the book:
“In a review of his interactive online instrument, Web Phases, Kyle Gann of the Village Voice described it as being ‘on a noticeably higher artistic level’ than the earliest tape-music and computer-music pieces, concluding that ‘the potential for social reorientation is even more incredible,’ and predicting ‘we’ll look back and say 1998 was the year our relationship to music entered a new era.'”
For much of the ’90s he was the Producing Director of The Kitchen in New York where he produced the work of Philip Glass, DJ Spooky, David Hykes and many others.
Musical instruments & styles
Instruments
Guitar, Keyboards, Percussion
Styles
Funk, Ambient