Thievery Corporation

Photo: Mick Rock

No one sets quite the same magic carpet mood as DJ/producers Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, better known as Thievery Corporation. Their opulent blend of encyclopedic tastes like jazz, bossa nova, Indian classical and Jamaican dub have turned many a local lounge into an electronica Babylon.

Both musicians grew up near Washington D.C., but with varied musical influences. Hilton started out punk but got turned on by roots and soul music. While Garza was known to dig through his parent's collection of Henry Mancini albums before making beats for local rappers. They met up in 1995 and emerged within the underground DJ scene, creating their own label and fostering a number of new musicians in the process.

A series of inventive albums have marked their growth and further experimentation this decade. Collaborations with Perry Farrell, The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne and David Byrne were standouts from their last full album The Cosmic Game. Underneath the languid rhythms were increasingly political lyrics against the war in Iraq. With an acclaimed career, millions of album sales and thought-provoking themes, this is a corporation built to last.