Parasite (artist)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Parasite is the artist name of raggacore/breakcore musician/producer Armin Elsaesser. He was born in Eureka, California and currently lives in Bristol, England.

Elsaesser runs the record label Death$ucker Records, which boasts one of breakcore's most eclectic rosters, featuring Bong-Ra, knifehandchop, Monkey Steak, d'kat, and DJ Ripley. In addition to records on his own label, he has released work on Peace Off records and on Bong-Ra's label, Clash Records. He also heads DSWAT.net, which advertises as "the premier online record shop specialising in Breakcore, Mash Up, Ragga Jungle, Dubstep, Grime, Drum & Bass, Electronica and Bashment," and offers support to small independent labels, musicians and producers. Elsaesser also organised the now-defunct Toxic Dancehall parties in Bristol. The parties grew from 30 people in the basement of an Indian restaurant to crowds over a thousand strong at the Black Swan in just three years.^[1] After deciding that he wanted to take the live music in a different direction he co-founded 'The GoatLab' which looked to break new music and artists on the Bristol breakcore scene. The name of the night came from the Jon Ronson book, 'The Men Who Stare At Goats' which Parasite references as an influence.<ref="TheGoatLab.com - what is The GoatLab">GoatLab - What is The GoatLab?</ref>.

Elsaesser admits that he has a strong political streak. "Breakcore, by its very nature, is political!" he says. "The very fact that the majority of breakcore tunes are a copyright infringement [case] waiting to happen is proof of this. Also, political opinions can be heard in a wealth of breakcore tunes today. Look at artists like Aaron Spectre, Noize Punishment, and The Bug, to name a few–all have a political message to convey. Certainly in Bristol whenever an anti-Blair/Bush sample gets dropped, the reaction from the audience is generally positive, with shouts of acknowledgment. Personally [I] try to remain active in a political sense in that I regularly play benefit gigs, support political causes, and attend political rallies, [and] I also sell political material [through DSWAT]."^[1]