Eric Hilton and Rob Garza have made their group, Thievery Corporation, synonymous with downtempo electronic music, from trip-hop to bossa nova to dub. The two are also renowned DJs whose record collections are equally chill.

But for the past several years, Garza has been writing songs -- old-fashioned rock songs -- on the side. Those tunes have now been realized, recorded and released on a self-titled album under the Dust Galaxy moniker.

"It's a project that was started a while back and it seems like it's taken forever," Garza said.

Alternating between synth-influenced instrumental lounge tracks, punchy indie rockers and heavy bass-driven dance tracks, "Dust Galaxy" (ESL Music) can pose some surprises for anyone expecting a Thievery Corporation knock-off. Garza plays keyboards and guitar, and he sings on most tracks. His voice is surprisingly rough and well-suited to the British-inspired rock tunes with fuzzy guitars and slow, melancholy beats.

Like its leader, Garza's band for "Dust Galaxy" has pedigree, too. James Canty, of The Make-Up and French Toast, plays guitar while Brazilian Girls' Didi Gutman plays keys and members of Primal Scream take on other duties.

"It's just people whose paths I crossed over the course of the years but never really got a chance to work with," Garza said. "I think one of the great things about this project is being able to work with so many different people outside of my realm. Stuff like going over to London and working with these different musicians, actually being in the studio doing it kind of old school and then putting together a band [in D.C.] and working with different players ... Just pulling people together is one of the things that makes this project very vibrant."

With Garza's other and numerous commitments, Dust Galaxy does face some hurdles.

"Given the nature that this is a side project and I have my main gig going on, it's not like you're just out of high school and everybody has free time to go on tour," he said. "It can be very difficult coordinating schedules and people have different bands and other projects that they're working on."

Regardless, the band has managed to schedule a series of live dates, which kicks off Nov. 14 in Toronto and concludes Dec. 6 at the Eighteenth Street Lounge in D.C.

While Dust Galaxy will garner most of its attention because of Thievery Corporation, Garza said, "I think it will probably be detrimental in a way ... I wouldn't expect the average fan to get into it as much, so in that way it may be kind of strange if people are coming to a Dust Galaxy show and expecting to hear something like Thievery Corporation."

But upon further reflection, he added, "At the same time, we did a tour last year of Europe and there were people who came who weren't familiar with the music and at first they were very puzzled, but at the end, they really dug the sounds."

--Katherine Silkaitis (Express, November 7, 2007)