Artist description This is a collective of all the wonderful musicians I have had a chance to work with, and a promotional tool to put me in touch with other musicians outside of my physical reach. Should any one want to exchange talent via the net, I'm more than willing!!!

Music Style funky, smoothe & soulful

Musical Influences DePeche Mode, DAG, NIN, Parliament, Led Zepplin, Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, Alice in Chains, Sound Garden, John Denver, Kingston Trio, Issac Hayes, Tool, U2, William Orbit, MOBY, Peter Murphy, Godsmack, YES, Dream Theater, RUSH, Mr. Bungle, Funkadelic, Bjork, Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd

Similar Artists DePeche Mode, DAG, NIN, Parliament, Led Zepplin, Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, Alice in Chains, Sound Garden, John Denver, Kingston Trio, Issac Hayes, Tool, U2, William Orbit, MOBY, Peter Murphy.

Artist History This captures the last 10 years of original music, which I have been a part of. ZNGroove started it all back in 92' with Nolen Strong (guitar), Sonic (programming), Todd Smith (drums), & soma (vox). We kicked it for a little over 2 years and then dismantled. Nolen pursued ZNGroove w/ a tasty, hardcore funky flare, while the rest of us joined hands w/ Tony Orifici (guitar), and went a subtler, electro-organic direction - forming Sonic Erotica of which the groovenaughts were born (a whole other story). The band lasted about as long as ZNGroove's original line up, when guitarist Bobby Devitto linked up w/ Sonic to record LVX Nova. By the way, great stuff! You'll have to contact Sonic of TurtleBend for copies of this stuff though, I don't know where else you could get it. Nearing the end of Sonic Erotica & into the beginnings of LVX Nova, Sonic and soma put together a CD entitled SOMASONIC. Check it out!!! For nearly 2 years, I took a hiatus from the stage to get into digital recording, and man do I love it! What an awesome way to hone in on one's skills. Granted, learning this stuff has been an uphill battle, but never regreted!!! From late 97' through 98' I teamed up with Nolen again, DJ TRANCE (keys + programming, harmonies), and Al Simetz (drums + percussion) to form SOUL27. We recorded for a year and did one really great show! We never planned for it to go beyond the studio, but had so much fun that we couldn't resist one could kick in the arse'!!! During this time, I rekindled my relationship with some old blokes, from Hard2theLeft, which I admired in the Sonic Erotica daze. These guys sort of made you pay attention. Anyway, we did a couple or three takes of a tune Rob Bechtel wrote, called "Measure of a Man." It wasn't until a few months into SOUL27's break that I began kicking it heavy with Fornikulture's newest line-up. This stuff rocks and is a lot of fun to perform! Six guys; six different roots. Rob Bechtel (rhythm + ethnic instrumentation), The Professor (base guitar + acoustic), Jeff Hamilton (Lead Guitar), Ke'ne (Drums + percussion), Mike Krotz (keys + programming), soma (vox). Fornikulture is my latest adoration, but I've only included one song on this site. I'd rather you go to the Fornikulture mp3 site. If you click on the spacegrass web site link, it will take you to Fornikulture's web site!!!

Group Members soma (vox + lyrics)...Sonic (now TurtleBend, programming, keys, harmonies)...Nolen Strong (guitars, base, keys, harmonies), Todd Smith (drums + percussion, harmonies), Tony Orifici (guitars, harmonies), DJ Trance (keys + programming, harmonies), Rob Bechtel (guitars, ethnic instrumentation, harmonies), Ke'ne (drums + percussion), The Professor (base + acoustic), Jeff Hamilton (guitars), Mike Krotz (keys + programming, vocoder effects).

Instruments Sorry I don't know the specific names and styles of all the guitars used. I'm more of a late model synth/processor kind of guy...Let's see, Chameleon guitar processor, 5 + 6 string bases, Line-6 guitar processor, Alesis Quadroverb2, Lexicon MPX 100, Jeckyll&Hyde distortion box, ASR-10, JP8080, Morpheus, Novatin Base Station, FIZMO, Poly 6, Mono Poly, SH-09, Nord Lead 2, Digitech Vocalist.

Albums See additional info at the bottom of this page!!!

Press Reviews Search: Sonic Erotica; LVX Nova; Turtle Bend; fornikulture; Abacus; Nolen Strong

Additional Info To order CDs, contact the following: fornikulture CD (5.99) fornikulture@mail.com Soul27 CD (5.99)ZNGroove@mindspring.com SOMASONIC CD (7.99) Sonicmmm@gte.net Sonic Erotica (10.99) Tonyguitar@juno.com ZNGroove (5.99) ZNGroove@mindspring.com

Location St. Petersburg, Florida - USA

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