Sonic Boom

It's not every day that musicians find inspiration in the everyday buzz of washing machines tumbling or lawn mowers humming, but Pete Kember, a.k.a. Sonic Boom, lists precisely those quotidian noises among his formative influences. An atypical, intellectual tinkerer from the outset, Kember first gained recognition when he joined forces with Jason Pierce to create their indie success Spacemen 3, 1980s psychedelicists most notable for their experiments with minimalism, as on 1989's consummate Playing With Fire. At the dawn of the '90s, Kember parted ways with Pierce and began his new group Spectrum, in which he began exploring the power of hypnotic drones in earnest, often relying on tone clusters and repetitive chord progressions to evolve from lonely murmurs to an all-encompassing roars. Albums like Soul Kiss (Glide Divine) -- featuring his most memorable pop dalliance, "How You Satisfy Me" -- and Highs, Lows and Heavenly Blows garnered Spectrum a dedicated cult following. Alongside his work as Spectrum's driving force, the prolific Kember also began working with his more overtly minimalist electronic side project Experimental Audio Research, joined on albums like Beyond the Pale and Phenomena 256 by a diverse slate of like-minded artists including My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields and key figures from the birth of Britain's electronic avant-garde, including AMM's Eddie Prévost and the legendary Delia Derbyshire of The BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Kember has himself eased into an elder statesman role, working with best-selling indie rockers MGMT and Panda Bear.