Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaur is the electronic/ dance project of Orlando Tobias Edward Higginbottom (born 7 March 1986). Orlando’s music is noted for its dichotic structure assuming both a visceral house driven style and a subdued IDM approach similar to artists like Caribou or Matthew Dear.
Orlando was born in London, England to a Professor of New College in Oxford. His father, Edward Higginbottom was the conductor of the choir at the college and undoubtedly had a large influence on Orlando’s musical upbringing.
Orlando went to the Cherwell School in Oxford and progressed to the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he studied classical music. Despite his heavy exposure to the classical form he developed a new found interest in electronic music in his early teens and has since pursued this style entirely. Fueled by the electronica cassettes he inherited from his older sibling he took up sound production and composition. At the age of 13 he was buying records in bulk and fine tuning his skills as a DJ.
In 2007 he started putting out rough demo recordings on myspace under the name Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (TEED). The name is a ploy in many ways, acting as a reactionary comment to the swell headedness and aloof attitude commonly projected in the electronic music community. Orlando’s stage name is not the only thing in this project that is boisterous. His live set up sometimes consists of him dressing up as a dinosaur backed by dancers cladded in equally ridiculous costumes.
These kinds of stunts would make one think he would be a perfect headliner for the mushroom eating, broski subculture permeating at festivals like Electric Forest. While some of his songs get an amped up treatment, his work often steers closer to the nuanced but complex sound engineering heard from many of Warp Records’ artists. In some ways his counter paring of absurdist imagery with thought provoking music often brings to mind the contradictory and often hilarious style of Aphex Twin.
In fact one of TEEDs‘ first official releases was featured on the label Warp. Orlando was recruited by Damon Albarn (Blur frontman and mastermind behind the Gorillaz) to work on material for the electronic compilation album “Kinshasa One Two”, which saw release through the label on 30 September 2011.
TEED put out his studio debut on 11 June 2012 through Polydor Records. The album was garnered with critical praise from publications ranging from BBC to Pitchfork and won a variety of accolades including iTunes ‘Debut Electronic Album of the Year‘ and DJ Magazine’s ‘Album of the Year’. Likewise TEED received high praise for the tour supporting this album.
TEED released several singles following his debut album such as “Lion, the Lion”, “Feels Like” and the Dillon Francis co-written single “Without You”. In addition to TEEDs‘ own recordings he is also known for his remixes. He has done work on songs such as Sky Ferreira’s “One”, Katy Perry’s “Firework”, Lady Gaga “Mary the Night”, Friendly Fire’s “Hawaiian Air”, Disclosure’s “F For You”, and Little Dragon’s “Paris”.
Steve Lacy
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