LowHero.DLL  is electro-alt-pop music for stylish geeks and non-geeks who secretly (or outwardly) admire geeks and the things geeks do.

38,000 feet above somewhere between Utah and Arkansas , Jonathan Chalker, formerly of Penetrator (Industrial with DNB overtones) and Mindpeg (Gothic Industrial) found himself at a crossroads. Having earned modest acclaim over the past 12 years as an electronic artist consumed with breaking rules and defying traditional expectations of his chosen genres, he was dissatisfied – utterly dissatisfied. On a flight in 2006 from San Francisco he was reading about Gorillaz and their “virtual band members” in Wired Magazine. He was overcome with the realization that the music he’d been so into making just wasn’t all that.

“The music I was making was cool enough I suppose. I was getting respect for my production skill and tricky little things I would throw into the mix. However, I was having a really hard time connecting to an audience in the way a project like Gorillaz does. It seemed that the kids liked parts of this and parts of that but never really got where I was coming from on a whole. I probably didn’t know where I myself was coming from. I’d start to write something catchy and then I would mess it up on purpose, either taking some huge liberties with structure or laying in really heavy industrial rhythms in unlikely places. I think I was rebelling against anything remotely pop.”

It was time for a change.

“I was listening to a lot of newer Electro and Electroclash like Fischerspooner,Freezepop, Goldfrap, and Ladytron as well as some classics like Kraftwerk. Much of it was finding an audience in sound-bite form within commercials for things like automobiles and mobile phones, to cheap, stylish apparel. It was electronic, somewhat raw and innovative and in most cases incredibly catchy. The only problem I found with it was that listening to some of it for extended periods of time felt like eating sugary candy - overtly pleasurable in relative small amounts but ultimately unfulfilling.

I had this idea to start with some of the core concepts behind Electro music - the fat synthesizers, strong rhythms, use of vocoder effects (the vocals that sound robotic), and edgy, independent production techniques. I wanted to add something new the mix. I have been a puzzle geek for some time now. I also program computers in a few languages, so it was a natural choice to throw in hidden treasures and puzzles for other geeks to discover if they take time to poke around.”

LowHero.DLL was born.

With hefty, simple rhythms, unpredictable transitions in phrasing and lyrics inspired by his disconnected yet inquisitive point of view, LowHero.DLL is a fresh, deep-sea dive into a genre that is typically thought of as a wading pool. The debut album, FM_Era, blisters with postmodern themes that stick like glue to the psyche.

“It has the catchiness of a detergent commercial at times and the gravity of Greek Tragedy at others. I am hoping it will resonate a little more than some of my previous work. I want it to be accessible without being cheap and shallow.”

LowHero.DLL has adopted a web distribution model, offering free downloads of MP3s of all the songs from the new album, FM_Era, on the official web site and for purchase by fans in non-compressed wave format. LowHero.DLL will also offer a limited number of CD’s for purchase through the official site and other web channels like Amazon and CDBaby.