Throwing Snow

Throwing Snow is the alias of Ross Tones, a London-based dance music producer whose output has been compared to that of progressive dubstep figures Shackleton, Martyn, and Machinedrum. He debuted on his A Future Without label in 2007 with Footnotes, Pt. 1, a modest digital download EP. Short-form releases for labels like Ho-Tep and Sneaker Social Club trickled out sporadically through 2011, while the following year brought a pair of compelling EPs for Snowfall. During this period, additional strides were made with remixes for Gold Panda, Eskmo, Ital Tek, and Heathered Pearls. He also participated in a trip-hop-leaning group called Snow Ghosts, which also included Hannah Cartwright and Oli Knowles. In 2014, Tones released a pair of his most advanced EPs through Fabric's Houndstooth division (which had also signed Snow Ghosts). They preceded the album Mosaic, also released on Houndstooth, later that year. Following the February 2015 release of Snow Ghosts' second album, Tones returned to solo work with a trio of captivating digital singles, Lumen, Glower, and Xema (all collected as vinyl EP Axioms), before getting to work on his sophomore full-length. The record, titled Embers, was released once again through Houndstooth in January 2017. 2018 saw Throwing Snow sporadically release a number of singles such as "Simmer," "Myriad," and "Vulpine" -- all of which merged the composer's penchant for resonant ambience, breakneck drum'n'bass tempos, and pulsating techno-esque beats. November of that year saw the release of Loma -- a full-length effort that combined the aforementioned singles from throughout the year. The following November, he issued The Death of Pragmatism EP, which explored the political tensions and fragmentation in the U.K. related to Brexit. For his fourth record, 2021's Dragons, Tones created an algorithm that connected the music to images, both feeding off of each other to make unpredictable patterns which he then manipulated into tracks. He used this method to explore the purpose of music from its very beginning up until the use of machine learning, and how that has affected its trajectory. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi