Thievery Corporation

Thievery Corporation is a jazz and electronica duet formed in Washington, DC. It started when Rob Garza and Eric Hilton met at one of the capital’s nightclubs in 1995. It emerged they had got similar music tastes and equally strong desire to play their own stuff. The debut singles, 2001 Spliff Oddyssey, and Shaolin Satllite, were recorded and produced by the young musicians at their own expenses and their own studio Eighteenth Street Lounge. These and the following album Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi (1997) set the precise direction in which Thieverey Corporation were going to work since then on. However, this direction was quite broad, as the music they played included trip hop and acid jazz, chill out and lounge. As if revealing the meaning of their own name, the duet did a proficient and big job to supplement their modernistic electronic sound with old reggae and pop music tunes to make them fresh and noticeable in this new form.

Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi dragged Thievery Corporation from underground to the position of the new club favorites. The origination of the second album was associated with big troubles. After many long moths of hard labor, the records with the material for the upcoming album were stolen right from the studio. This forced the musicians to postpone the production of the new album. They released a collection of remixes, instead, entitled Abductions & Reconstructions, in 1999. The long-expected The Mirror Conspiracy (2000) was produced in a year, and featured notes of Brazilian, Jamaican, French and Indian music. The best track from the album was the single Lebanese Blonde with Pam Bricker’s outstandingly beautiful voice. The management of the Verve company made up a decision to invite the rising stars from Thievery Corporation to work on the compilation Sounds From the Verve Hi-Fi. Rob and Eric were offered a huge catalogue of the music of the sixties, from which they chose Brazilian pop and rarest, released long ago, songs. Sounds From the Verve Hi-Fi, released in 2001, peaked third in the jazz charts. The third album of Thievery Corporation, The Richest Man in Babylon (2002), gained even greater success and occupied the second position in the Billboards rating of electronic music. The session for this album involved the application of Afro-Cuban percussion and Emiliana Torrini on vocals.

Working on The Cosmic Game (2005), Thievery Corporation focused on psychodelia and rock. They had Perry Farrell, Wayne Coyne from Flaming Lips, David Byrne and some other celebrated singers do the vocals for the songs of the new album. It was released to high acclaim of the audience and critics, and finally topped the US electronic music charts. However, the satisfaction of the new release and tour was darkened by a tragedy. A few days before the new album was produced, Pab Bricker, committed suicide. Her voice had decorated all albums in the Theivery Corporation discography. This bitter event made the musicians change their schedule and cancel a number of performances. In 2005, the United Nations Organization made an official offer to Rob and Eric on participation in the aids program for the starving. Their first action in this role was a charitable concert together with leading DJs of Washington to raise funds for the victims of the Asian tsunami in December 2004. In 2006, Thievery Corporation released a compilation of remixes under the title Versions. Their new album, Radio Retaliation, was produced in 2008. Two years later the musicians made their fans a wonderful present by releasing an extremely powerful compilation album It Takes A Thief: The Very Best Of Thievery Corporation (2010). Thievery Corporation during their career created a great number of hits, and that new compilation impresses by the excellent choice of tried-and-true compositions, and it will definitely become a great addition to any music lover’s collection.