Bruce Cohen

There are two artists on Last.fm with the name Bruce Cohen. The following bio is about the Bruce Cohen whose musical career as a founding member, keyboard player, and song writer of the Philadelphia band, The Reds?, spans three decades of critically acclaimed recording and film work. Including thirteen Reds? albums, film soundtrack albums, songs and score for TV, major and indie film companies as well as major and indie directors.

BIOGRAPHY: Bruce Cohen is a founding member of the Philadelphia, PA band, The Reds?, whose first album on A&M, entitled "The Reds," is a combination of textures dense with electronic chaos brought to the edge of madness. The album, produced by David Kershenbaum, showed the band's impressive sound . . . a blend of Rick Shaffer's guitar, and Bruce Cohen's keyboards, into an interestingly textured drone, short guitar and keyboard figures, rising then disappearing back into the drone, while Shaffer's voice provides the punch and definition for their overall sound. The album was supported with live appearances with such diverse acts as The Police, Joe Jackson, Blondie, The Ramones, The Psychedelic Furs, and Public Image.

"The Reds" was followed by an A&M EP, featuring The Doors song, "Break On Through," which suggests some of the band's roots. After leaving A&M, The Reds? went forward with two independent albums, "Stronger Silence" and "Fatal Slide" (Stony Plain/RCA), that continued The Reds? sound, receiving critical acclaim internationally.

They next recorded a tense and powerful album for Sire/WB entitled, "Shake Appeal," produced by Mike Thorne (Blur, Soft Cell, Wire). This forcible record led the band to work with director/producer, Michael Mann. Mann incorporated numerous Reds songs into episodes of Miami Vice. The impact of the songs led Mann to hire Cohen and Shaffer to write songs and score for two motion pictures, "Band Of The Hand" (Tri-Star) and "Manhunter" (De Laurentiis), based on the novel "Red Dragon." Soundtrack albums from both films were released on MCA, and a ?Manhunter? CD (with an added Reds track, ?Jogger's Stakeout?), was released by Intrada Records, March 2010.

Solo projects at this time for Cohen included writing score for the productions, "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" and "Down The Road" at Philadelphia's Walnut Theatre; "The Speckled Band," starring Quentin Crisp, and Charles Busch' play, "Vampire Lesbians Of Sodom" for NYC's Pulse Theatre Company; and a forty minute electronic film noir piece for "Goodbye Johnny Staccato."

The Reds? next album, "Cry Tomorrow" (Tarock) reunited them with British producer Mike Thorne. It captures the driving intensity of earlier albums and the ambient, atmospheric feel from their film scores, resulting in a stark, surreal album, with a sense of mood and mystery. The pulsing opening track, "Terror In My Heart," was featured in the film, "Nightmare On Elm Street 2" (New Line), directed by Jack Shoulder.

In 2007, the critically acclaimed album, "Fugitives From The Laughing House" (Tarock) was released. Written and produced by The Reds?, the album is a straight forward raw nerve reflection of life in America. In 2008, "Lethal Dose" inspired British director, Peter McAdam, to shoot an independent film short, also entitled, Lethal Dose.

The Reds? February 2009 release, "Early Nothing" (Tarock), was also written and produced by Cohen and Shaffer. The album has a hypnotic quality, that leaves the listener free to let their subconscious play itself out, no matter where it goes, while maintaining the simplicity of the moment. This album again inspired McAdam to create a film short of, "So Long."

In a totally different genre side project, Cohen, along with Rik Myers (guitar), and Brandon Cruz (drums), formed a heavy, psychedelic, Hammond organ jazz trio, called Big Fun 3. The Miami based group is signed to Ropeadope Records, who have released albums in 2010, and 2011.

For his solo endeavors, Cohen likes to experiment with German electronic minimalism, and the atmospheric landscape of ambient textures. His first solo album, "One BC" (Tarock), was released August 2009, and contains all atmospheric, ambient instrumentals in the tradition and style of Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel and Klaus Schulze.

His 2011 solo venture, ?Two BC? (Tarock), expands on his earlier ambient themes, yet are even more experimental, and danceable. The album contains tracks that go from spacial, lush, ambient soundscapes, to metal space funk, with every track receiving the special Bruce Cohen treatment.

SIMILAR ARTISTS: Tangerine Dream, Philip Glass, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel.

Tarock Music ? tarock@epix.net ? TarockMusic.com