The Heard is a Chicago-based band venerated for its deep pocket and reverence for legendary funk. The group is known for turning out hot, sweat-drenched sets that stretch into the wee hours every Thursday night at live music Mecca aliveOne.

The Heard has delivered hard hitting performances at some of Chicago’s top venues, including Metro Chicago, Lincoln Hall, Congress Theater and Concord Music Hall. The group has backed former Galactic vocalist Theryl “Houseman” DeClouet and has shared the stage with national acts Dumpstaphunk, Lettuce, Slightly Stoopid, George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, Passafire, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Dragon Smoke, The Nth Power, The Motet, The Mike Dillon Band, Alan Evans’ Playonbrother, and The M&M’s.

2013 saw The Heard break onto the national festival scene with sets at Chicago’s Northcoast Music Festival and String Cheese’s Incident’s Suwanee Hulaween festival in Florida. The band also performed at two of Chicago’s largest neighborhood festivals, Taste of Randolph Street and Boulevard Fest.

The Heard’s music features powerful horn melodies delivered with precision and swagger by Adam Gross (trombone), Lucas Ellman (saxophone), and Parris Fleming (trumpet), the driving rhythm guitar playing of Taras Horalewskyj, tasteful keyboard work by Neal O’Hara, and a slamming foundation provided by bassist Mike Starr and drummer PJ Howard.

Soul-Funk-Electronic Fusion | Music for the Spirit

Just a musician with a computer In chicago trying to make people get down and think about space at the same time. Forever jam lyfe.

Inverse Universe is a Chicago based electronic bass music project that features the collaborative efforts of Tyler Thompson (TYLR) and Adam Stephens (STEPHENS). In a music scene dominated by DJ’s, these two musicians turned producers strive to give the crowd more by performing 100% original compositions and remixes. They incorporate a combination of live instrumentation and mix multiple layers of “stems”. In other words, they are mixing each instrumental layer of their song on the spot. This style of mixing allows Inverse Universe to artistically reinvent the way the listener hears each song rhythmically, melodically, and structurally, so that every performance can demonstrate a completely new experience of each track. The objective of the Inverse Universe project, aside from delivering melodically powerful bass-driven music, is to get away from the traditional performance methods of DJ’s who often perform by mixing from one premade track to the next, and to create energy by engaging the audience through the spectacle of their drum, keyboard, guitar, and finger-drumming techniques. These two artists have learned from extensive experience as performers that there is more to the art of electronic music than limiting yourself to specific genres, tempos, and moods. As such, Inverse Universe strives to present its listeners with passionate polytempo sets that cover the range of human emotion from strong, hand raising bangers, to smooth, lush, melodic soundscapes that transport listeners to dream-like states of wonder.

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