The Frozen Food Section

NAME: EngLebuRt
ALIASES: pHiLo, Positively Influential Mental Patient, P double M, Pimp Minister Mike
PEEP TRAX: www.soundclick.com/engleburt
D.O.B.: 3/27/78
HEIGHT: 5’6″
WEIGHT: 130
OCCUPATIONS: Husband, MC, Producer/DJ/Sound Tech, Internet Sales Manager, Marketing Consultant, Financial Adviser
EDUCATION: SIUE-BS in Marketing, YWAM(Youth With a Mission)-grad of DTS (Discipleship Training School)
POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Non-partisan
FAITH AFFILIATION: Non-denominational Christian

LIFE-BIO pt. 1:
Born Michael Stahl, in Biloxi, Mississippi to Lawrence and Wesley. Michael was born into a life of constant travel as his father was enlisted in the Air Force. From Mississippi he moved to Florida where his parents birthed his sister Danielle to Arizona where his parents birthed his brother Mark. In 2nd grade buRt first heard the sounds of ‘hip-hop’ from a friends boom box as he bumped Brass Monkey by the Beasties. It was love at first sight, er, hear? But most of buRt’s younger years were spent playing the 2600, and the TI-99/4A, watching Dr. Who and the Star Wars trilogy, and reading books like My Robot Buddy, and a whole lot of Choose your own Adventure (Especially the Escape from Tenopia, and the Escape from the Kingdom of Frome series.) In 4th grade he moved to Omaha, Nebraska, a Mecca of culture. He went through some pretty serious lows while living amongst the cornfields. The first being his parents opted for a 7800 as opposed to the Nintendo, because ‘the graphics were the same and he had tons of 2600 carts that would still play on the system’, the second being his Sister destroyed years of entomology work when she stepped all over his pinned and labeled insect collection, and the third being his official introduction to hip-hop were the first 2 rap tapes he received: Hammer ‘Please don’t hurt ’em’ and Vanilla Ice ‘2 the Extreme’. During his stay in Nebraska, buRt spent a lot of time reading sci-fi classics such as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, watching SCTV, learning how to program in extended basic, and listening to his Falco and Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack tape. But life was about to get a whole lot more exciting, as his Dad received orders to Germany, and in order to keep him and his sister quiet he received a Game Boy for Christmas. buRt was glad to leave the confines of Nebraska, and happy as he was leaving during a turbulent 7th grade year where kids took cruelty to a new level. Once he had to walk the halls in his gym clothes because his school clothes had been urinated on while was playing kickball during PE. But Germany would prove to be 4 of the roughest years of EngLebuRt’s life. On the plus side buRt received a CD that would forever change his life, Yo MTV Raps. A collection that contained De La Soul, Stetsasonic, BDP, Steady B, etc. It was De La Soul though that would forever change his perspective on music, as it led him to Tribe called Quest, Leaders of the New School, Black Sheep, well pretty much the good stuff. But as his love for hip-hop grew, so did problems with his peers. It was at this time that buRt renounced his white pigmentation and morphed into a Danny Hochman-like white boy who though that he was black. As a result many fights ensued, most resulting in buRt lying in a disheveled head afterwards. But these fights only made him hate his ‘whiteness’ even more. In High School several gangsta flicks came out that pushed buRt further over the edge, mainly Menace II Society. buRt began to practice throwing sets, and how to properly lock a bandana. This combined with the rise of Dre and Snoop, Wu-Tang and Mobb Deep only added fuel to the fire. Probably the craziest part of all of this was buRt played the ‘G’ role while at school, but he lived in a quaint German village by the name of Quidersbach, where only a handful of Americans lived and most were several years younger. So buRt spent most of his time playing Nintendo (which he finally received when he turned 15), PC, Vic-20, Commodore 64, and his trusty TI-99/4a. buRt also spent many hours on his trusty Blue Max BMX bike, which took him all over the countryside of villages throughout Germany. Before he could graduate from high school his dad once again received orders, back to the good ol’ USA. So 12th grade was spent in Belleville, Illinois, where buRt quickly learned ‘wigger’ was not an acceptable form of behavior for Caucasians unless death was on the agenda (this was also back in 1996). The day that would forever change buRt’s days of gangsterism occurred while on a field trip at a St. Louis mall and a group of kids threatened to ‘bust a cap’ in him for being a perpetrating ‘white flag’. Luckily police showed up causing his adversaries to flee. buRt went home and retired the bandanas and all thoughts of being a ‘G’. But his love for hip-hop only grew and he continued to write rhymes. TO BE CONTINUED…

MUSIC-BIO:
Been in love with hip-hop ever since I peeped the Beastie Boys back in 2nd grade. Since then I was in a funk band called Universal Grooves, an experimental acoustic band called Carefully Out of Place, and a Rap-Core band called soundadvice (www.basher.net/soundadvice). Featured several times in The Alestle, SIUE’s newspaper, while in Universal Grooves. Told by a local patron at the Soulard Market that I was the next Frank Zappa, while playing a show in Carefully Out of Place. Mobbed by hundreds of adoring fans at a couple solo stints in Townsville and Sydney Australia. My band soundadvice was featured in HM magazine, a global publication, and had a track featured on the ‘Best of’ CD that comes with every magazine. We were offered a deal to sign with Mercy Street records, but that fell through when I left the band. After playing in soundadvice, and having to live up to this image of ‘look at me I have dreads and piercings, I scream and look all scary, aren’t I cool’, I decided it was time to shed the fake image and show the world the nerd I really am. After finding out that several EmCees had taken the tag pHiLo, I decided to take upon a tag no ‘real b-boy’ would touch with a fifty foot pole coated in teflon, EngLebuRt, which came from 2 of my favorite artists to sample, Engelbert Humperdink and Burt Bacharach. Which leads me to the tracks, electro-lounge hop at its finest. I decided instead of being you typical EmCee/Frontman complaining about not having a DeeJay/Band, I would take matters into my own hands and start giving birth to beats. When I started sampling and making tracks, I was digging for Funk, Soul, R&B, Jazz, Disco, you know, just like all the other ‘real’ DJ’s and Producers. Well when you live in Belleville, Illinois all you got is Percy Faith, Perry Como, Ferrante and Teicher, etc. Well, I decided to pick some of it up, throw it in a sampler and drop it over some nice good ol’ 4/4 break beats, and wahlah, I had lounge hop. Then I throw some effects on samples and dropped some analog keyboard and filters to the mix, thus electro. Since I have been doing my own tracks, I constantly reached the top 10 on the Breakbeat charts, and Downtempo charts on MP3.com (RIP), and was the #1 Hip-Hop and Electronic artist in St. Louis according to number of downloads on MP3. Outside of my instrumental albums, and tracks for olivelounge, I am currently working on tracks for The Frozen Food Section artist roster, and NapStarR. I also finished scoring an indie film called Dark Garden, which can be peeped at www.backwardslogicproductions.com. Expect an album and live shows that will include my associates in olivelounge (Mo-Vega$ and Home-Le$$), the NapStarR proGram (@lantis, Pax-iLL, sol-jah) and other friends like the robot Series 271, Gimpee the Goat, and Special Sammie. Also expect to hear kazoo, harmonica, chromonica, djembe, didgeridoo, speak and (spell, read, math), dissected electronics and whatever noise maker I can get my hands on. Anyways, Auf Wiedersehn all you crazy catz and kittens and remember its EngLebuRt 2004 till Infinity….Beware the WumpuS!

MUSICAL INSPIRATION:
Hip-Hop Producers-Dan the Automator, Prince Paul, DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, RJD2, El-P, Metal Fingers, Madlib, Dust Brothers, People Under The Stairs, Jay Dee, Jazzy Jeff, Evolve, Dust, Architect, Peanut Butter Wolf, Cut Chemist, Numark, Richy Pitch, Mario C, Sam Sever, J-Swift, Dynomite D, Bomb Squad, Domino, Diamond D, Pete Rock, DJ Premier, Ali Shaheed Mohammad…

EmCees: New Skool: LA Symphony(Pigeon John, Joey the Jerk, Flynn Adam Atkins, Cookbook, Uno Mas, Sharlok Poems, B-Twice), Mars iLL-ManChild, dirt, iLL Harmonics-PlayDough, The Procussions(Mr. J Medeiros, Resonant, Stro the 89th Key), Mr. Lif, Jurassic 5, Aesop Rock, Slug, El-P, Cannibal Ox(Vaste Aire, Vordal Megala), MF Doom, Quaismoto, Anti-Pop Consortium(Beans, Sayyid, Priest), Paul Barman, Blueprint, Asheru, Blue Black, J-Live, Encore, Slum Village w/ Jay Dee

Classic Hip-Hop: Native Tongue(De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers, Black Sheep, Bush Babees, Leaders of the New School), Beastie Boys, 3rd Bass, GangStarr, Wu-Tang(enter the 36-era), Digable Planets, The Roots, Common, Dream Warriors, Brothers Under Madness, Questionmark Asylum, Freestlye Fellowship-Aceyelone, The Nonce, Heiro(Del the Funkee Homosapian, Souls of Mischief, Casual), Pharcyde, Camp Lo, Public Enemy, EPMD, The Fugees, Arrested Development (of course props to all the classic classics

Elecronic(Big Beat, House, Trip-Hop, Downtempo, D’n’B, IDM): Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, FatBoy Slim, Daft Punk, Wiseguys, DJ Punk Rock, Freestylers, Roni Size, Ming and FS, Funkstorung, Plaid, Squarepusher, Death in Vegas, Antidote, Boards of Canada, Portishead, Air, Bjork, Massive Attack, Tricky, 4 Hero, Jazzanova, Theivery Corp., Kid Loco, Towa Tei, Goldfrapp, Morcheeba, Hooverphonic, Lamb, Dot Allison, Esthero, UNKLE, Groove Armada, Moloko, Stereolab, Sweetback

Eclectic Stuff: Beck, Gorillaz, Junior Senior, Soul Coughing, Cake, Radiohead, Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse, Soul-Junk, Danielson Family, Pirate Eye Patch, Soul Hooligan, Roadside Monument, Bloomsday, Honey, Infradig

Heavier Stuff: Rage Againt the Machine, At The Drive In, Incubus, Downset, Quarashi, Chevelle, Zao, Training For Utopia, Beloved, Living Sacrifice, Frodus

Slower Stuff: Jamiroquai, Groove Collective, Brand New Heavies, PM Dawn, Lauren Hill, Wyclef, Speech, D’Angelo, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Res, Floetry, Remy Shand, Jaguar Wright, Maxwell, India Arie, Sade, Mary J. Blige, Brian McKnight

Favorite Local Acts: The Conformists, Phalice Chalice, Je’sus and the Flaming Tacos, Squad Car, 5 Story Fall

And this is only scraping the surface…we start going into 80’s influences (Falco, Peter Gabriel, Flock of Seagulls, Phil Collins, Joe Jackson and thats just the New Wave pop stuff…) 70’s (Kool and the Gang, AWB, KC and the Sunshine Band, Parliment, Sly and the Family Stone and that’s just the funky stuff…) do you really want more of this?!? I mean I love me some Bob James, Ramsey Lewis, Herbie Hancock, Deodato, Herb Albert, Grover Washington, Ron Carter, Donald Byrd. And I do dig the classic lounge sounds of ‘Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Tony Bennett, Mel Torme’ and the newer batch of guys like ‘Tom Jones, Neil Diamond, Andy Williams, Barry Manilow’. Well I’m going to cut it, enough already stop the insanity…Beware the WumpuS!!!