Initially releasing music on celebrity DJ
Steve Aoki's Dim Mak label and often compared stylistically to French electro superstars
Justice,
the Bloody Beetroots -- technically a solo project of one
Sir Bob Cornelius Rifo -- generated significant buzz in the music blogosphere from 2006 onward with both remix and production work. The Italian artist's masked appearance à la
Daft Punk also garnered significant media attention.
Rifo began to establish the Bloody Beetroots DJ Set as a performance act in early 2008 with a short American tour that included a stop at South by Southwest as well as numerous club gigs in Los Angeles, where he appeared alongside
Aoki. Following a handful of EPs,
the Bloody Beetroots' first album,
Romborama, was released in 2009.
Rifo then spent the next couple of years promoting the record with an extensive touring schedule, and by spring 2010 he had named his live act
Bloody Beetroots Deathcrew '77.
By 2011
the Bloody Beetroots had not only been signed to
Patrick Moxey's renowned Ultra label, but
Rifo's work had also begun to appear on Ministry of Sound in Australia. Later that year,
Refused and
the (International) Noise Conspiracy vocalist
Dennis Lyxzén came into the fold for Church of Noise, an anarchistic side project with a tour and single of the same name. The year culminated with a prestigious, celebratory L.A. live date on New Year's Eve, setting the tone for a successful summer 2012 festival season for the DJ set show. The infectious, riff-based "Rocksteady" appeared earlier that year and was followed in December by the comparatively tempered "Chronicles of a Fallen Love" featuring
Deadmau5 associate
Greta Svabo Bech on vocals. In January 2013, Ultra began a strategic relationship with Sony, meaning that
Bloody Beetroots material was issued on the major label in many different international territories.
This coincided with the unveiling of the powerful show The Bloody Beetroots Live, which made its way across North America and Europe for much of the year. June 2013 brought "Out of Sight," a gritty and anthemic collaboration with none other than
Paul McCartney and
Youth, ahead of a second long-player,
Hide, which arrived in September of that year. In 2015,
Rifo began recording and touring as
SBCR (Satan Bass City Rockers), a project that would become his main focus until returning to the
Bloody Beetroots moniker in 2017 for the release of the
Jet collaboration "My Name Is Thunder."
The Beetroots' third effort,
The Great Electronic Swindle, arrived in late 2017 on Last Gang. Returning in 2019,
Rifo celebrated the ten-year anniversary of first single "Warp 1.9" with remixes "Warp 2.0" and "Warp 2.019." He also issued "Wildchild" with
Ephwurd and "Fkn Face" with Dr. Fresch. ~ Jason Birchmeier & James Wilkinson