In 2022, the composers for the hit Netflix series Stranger Things, Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, continued to run their group as they released their fourth studio album, RR7400: RR7400 (live), along with the companion album, RR7349. This comes after their acclaimed score for the show, which they debuted in July 2016, just two months before releasing their second album, S U R V I V E. Kyle Dixon, an American producer and composer, is known as one-fourth of the experimental-based synth outfit S U R V I V E from Austin, Texas.
In 2016, S U R V I V E released their album RR7349 on the Records Relapse label, and in 2014, they released their EP MF064 on the Monofonus Press label. The band, consisting of Michael Stein, Kyle Dixon, Adam Jones, and Mark Donica, came together in 2010 to release their debut EP LLR002, followed by their self-titled full-length album in 2012. They are known for their experimental and ambient music, as well as their updated take on vintage sci-fi and horror film scores from the ’80s era. Stein and Dixon, who bonded over their shared love for the definitive soundtracks of that time, formed the electronic synth-laden outfit.
In the middle of 2019, the third season of Stranger Things, titled “music from the third season,” was released by the label. Lakeshore had previously released Stranger Things: Halloween Sounds from the Upside Down two months prior. The band recorded a live album titled RR7400: LA041717, also known as RR7400, three months before the studio version. This live album was released on Relapse in April 2018. In 2017, Dixon and the rest of S U R V I V E contributed music to a multidimensional and interactive restaurant project at the Sugar Hill Mountain Festival in Melbourne, Australia. In the same year, they returned to create the score for the second season of the show, which was released as Stranger Things 2. The Stranger Things title theme, which earned the 2017 Emmy for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music, was composed by the same composers. Later that year, the score was released in two separate volumes and received praise for its creative use of electronic music and tribute to artists like John Carpenter and Tangerine Dream. Both musicians were recruited for the job after the show’s creators used some of S U R V I V E’s tracks as temporary music during the show’s pre-production. In 2016, Dixon and Stein composed the score for the highly successful science fiction/adventure series Stranger Things.
In the meantime, during the season finale and fifth renewal, it was announced in July that the soundtrack companion for Stranger Things, titled “4 Things,” was released as the culmination of the fourth season, which eventually returned in mid-2022. Additionally, Stein and Dixon collaborated on independent films such as The Hole in the Fence (2021), The Retaliators (2019), and Native Son (2021), as well as the documentary Spheres (2018), while also finding scoring opportunities in other limited series and shorts.