Metro Area

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the music production team. For the article about population centers, see metropolitan area.

Metro Area are a Brooklyn-based retro-house DJ production team composed of Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani.

Music critics have characterized^{[citation needed]} Metro Area's music as a mix of '70s and '80s boogie, old-school R&B, disco, and house. More eclectic influences cited^{[citation needed]} by the band include early Detroit techno and Harlem-birthed underground disco (in addition to their enthusiasm for Hindi soundtracks and jazz).

[edit] History

The two producers met after corresponding on internet mailing lists. Before they met, both artists had been producing music individually: Geist had his Environ label (started in 1995, while Geist was still a student at Ohio's Oberlin College) and a series of releases (including 1997's The Driving Memoirs, released on Clear).

Jesrani was interested in breakdancing and got involved in clubbing during late adolescence. He got into production with Manish Sehgal as Essa 3 and Acronym City, and released tracks on SubFreq and Penetrate during the mid-'90s after about a year of recording and mixing sessions. The duo put out the first Metro Area 12" in 1999.

Moving through 2001, the duo issued an additional trio of three-song 12" releases -- numbered simply in succession, Chicago-style and released on Environ. In October of 2002, the duo released their full-length debut; the CD version featured six edits of previously released tracks and added four new cuts, and the double-vinyl edition featured the four new cuts along with four of the previously-released tracks.