Mo’ Wax — Where Are They Now: Atmos (2001)
Mo’ Wax was a record label started by James Lavelle in 1992, which closed about ten years later. Initially they released 12" singles and licensed a compilation from Japan of Japanese Hip Hop, until 1994 when they began releasing albums of their artists original work. While some of these artists such as DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, and Money Mark continued releasing music after Mo’ Wax closed, others have seemingly disappeared from the music scene. In this series I will look at each artist on Mo’ Wax and try to find out where are they now…
In 2000 Mo’ Wax created a spin-off label called Vecta. It put out four 12" singles by Beans, Divine Styler, Lenky, and Atmos. Only Divine Styler released anything further on Mo’Wax, but each artist continued releasing new music elsewhere too.
Atmos were an American duo consisting of Peter Rubin, aka MC Proven Self, and producer Eric Moss, better known as E.Moss. E.Moss was a New York native who moved to Michigan to study a Bachelor in Communications, and it was here he began his DJ career at WCBN, the student-run radio station at the University of Michigan.
After completing his studies in the late 90s, E.Moss returned to New York and formed Atmos with MC Proven Self, and made their debut in 1999 with the 12" Watch The Skies. Muzik in the UK were fans, giving it 5/5 and writing:
A debut from New York that shows an effort to advance beyond what others are doing. The beat on ‘Watch The Skies’ cuts up, doubles back on itself and changes, all the while held together by an orchestral clarion call. Meanwhile, Proven shows a vocal agility that places him in the forward-thinking school.
This was followed in 2000 by the Grounded EP which again earned them praise from Muzik who gave it 5/5. Elsewhere, The Wire enjoyed their gritty orchestration, while in the US, CMJ liked the instrumentals, but compared MC Proven Self to Pee Wee Herman, and felt his rhymes were “heavy-handed pseudo-intellectualism.” It still peaked at #31 in the CMJ Hip Hop Chart.
Both releases had come out on 4M, a label Eric Moss co-founded in 1999 to put out Atmos’ music, but the groups next 12" Shock Therapy was released by Mo’ Wax in the UK as part of their Vecta series.
Shock Therapy was released on 16 April 2001 and Muzik were once again massive fans, giving it 4/5 and suggesting E.Moss could be an “east coast Shadow replacement.” But it was the group’s final release, with a promo live recording being their only other known output. MC Proven Self seemingly disappeared, with his only music credits being those tracks with Atmos. But E.Moss continued producing.
Back in 2000 E.Moss had released Vida Blue, a song under the alias Beatboxes At Dawn. It appeared on a compilation 12" put out by a label called Ism, where Moss worked as head of their press and publicity department. The song was a taste of what he could create as a solo artist, but he wasn’t done with collaborating quite yet.
In mid-2001 after relocating from New York to LA, E.Moss began collaborating with Josh Kouzomis aka The Troublemaker for their Backyard Bangers project. Their first song was a collaboration with DJ Z-Trip released in 2002, and through Z-Trip they were then invited to remix Linkin Park for their Reanimation remix album.
Backyard Bangers released one 12" single Perception in 2003, and an album titled New Math in 2006. XLR8R were fans of the 12", writing that Perception was “a brooding cut ’n’ paste hip-hop track that almost boils over into drum & bass programming”. The full album has since been made available as a free download by Troublemaker.
2006 also saw a new solo release from E.Moss, with the instrumental EP Beatboxes At Dawn, reusing the name of his 2000 project. Among the five new tracks, the EP included Watch The Skies (Revisited), a reworking of the first Atmos single. XLR8R enjoyed it, and highlighted Back to the Edit as being “on a par with anything by DJ Shadow or Luke Vibert.” Jacob Arnold also saw similarities to Shadow, and drew further comparisons to Coldcut and early releases on Ninja Tune.
Since then E.Moss has been quiet, with his Soundcloud account last updated five years ago, and the bio simply stating “I used to produce music under the names E.Moss, Atmos, Backyard Bangers, Beatboxes at Dawn.”
Instead of music, Eric Moss has spent several years working in licensing, and took on the role of Licensing & Clearance Manager at The Walt Disney Company in 2012. He next moved to comic publisher IDW, before co-founding Zoop with Jordan Plosky. The new business launched in June 2021 and runs crowdfunding campaigns for comics.
While Atmos may have been the last we heard from MC Proven Self, Peter Rubin kept active, and went on to work in journalism. In 2000 he began as a staff writer for GQ Magazine, and published freelance in XXL, New York Times, Rolling Stone, among many more. More recently he worked for Medium, and Wired, and is currently the Head Of Publishing at Automattic. In 2018 he published his first book Future Presence: How Virtual Reality Is Changing Human Connection, Intimacy, and the Limits of Ordinary Life.
Although Atmos’ three 12" singles aren’t currently on streaming services, some of the songs have been made available on YouTube including 4x4 which appeared on the Grounded EP, and as the B-side to their Mo’ Wax release in 2001.
