In the not-so-distant past, ensuring street-cred and sales was as simple as aligning a particular song or artist with a brand. And although Britney did right by Pepsi, these days clients are aware that grabbing the attention of Gen Why? means becoming tragically hip themselves. Or at least vicariously hip.

Enter the Machine Head strategy. In recognizing that advertisers must be tastemakers in their own right, Venice's 10-year-old sound design house hired its own cool hunter, darling of the LA electronic scene and respected DJ, Jason Bentley. MH owner Stephen Dewey has charged Bentley with supervising, licensing and remixing music. And although one of Bentley's personal goals is to produce original scores, for now, he's doing what he does best - relaying the tone, color and vibe of a scene by ascribing a soundtrack to a visual.

Bentley began working at Maverick Records in 1996, but "[it] was suffocating," he says. "After a decade of radio shows [at NPR's KCRW and then at alt rock giant KROQ], I was used to influencing a lot of people." While Bentley fondly recalls producing the soundtrack for The Matrix - a project that won him a Grammy nomination - today he's audibly excited about the possibilities commercial work holds, which could have something to do with partner and friend, Mark Burgoyne being along for the ride.

Burgoyne was largely responsible for "ramping up The Matrix into supervisory gigs" from places like Machine Head. The two have been hired as a package, and although Burgoyne (who supervised MTV's Road Rules) is also a producer and supervisor, his stake is more in the administration of deals than the creative. "I was unprepared for commercial work," admits Bentley. "I had no strategy and no representation; [Mark] had those skills, so he was an obvious choice."

Bentley hopes to parlay his reputation as an expert ear into sales for current projects The Matrix3 and AniMatrix, and into status for Machine Head.

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