Appropriating their name from the first culture of the old world to explore the new, Phoenecia, aka Josh Kay & Romulo Del Castillo, was inaugurated in Miami in 1997. The pair had previously recorded under the Soul Oddity moniker, releasing an album & a series of 12-inch singles for the US major label Astralwerks. In late 1996 they founded Schematic Music Company, a record label which would go on to carve a distinct niche in the landscape of modern music by debuting releases from some of the most notable & influential electronic musicians of the twentieth century. In 2001 they released a full-length album entitled Brownout, which in the words of the late Tim Haslett was "Phoenecia's magnum opus, the place where the ideas found in the preceding records are allowed to come to full fruition... the compositions are cinematic, in the respect that the tracks are heavily influenced by the sound design of film, as opposed to the score". This album marked a decisive break from Phoenecia's rhythmic past & set the trajectory for the sound they would continue to develop over the next decade in their most recent albums Echelon Mall & Demissions.