Michael Beinhorn's professional music career started when he was a keyboard player for Bill Laswell's group Material during the '80s. When Laswell was assigned to produce Herbie Hancock's Future Shock album, he asked Beinhorn to co-produce. The Grammy-winning LP spawned the gold single Rockit, which went to number six R&B on Billboard's charts in summer 1983.

Beinhorn helped to create the Ultra Analog recording format which uses two-inch tape recorded at 7.5 ips (inches per second) tape speed. This approach brings out the low-end of the sound spectrum, which is good for the type of bands Beinborn produces (Soundgarden, Soul Asylum, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Ozzy Osbourne).

Some of Beinhorn's work can be found on the soundtrack album for the 1999 Susan Sarandon/Natalie Portman movie #Anywhere but Here; Material's Memory Serves, Live from Soundscape, One Down, The Ozzman Cometh: Greatest Hits; Hole's Celebrity Skin; Violent Femmes' Add It Up (1981-1993); The Red Hot Chili Peppers' What Hits!? & Mother's Milk; Soundgarden's A-Sides; Social Distortion's White Light, White Heat, White Trash; the #Reality Bites movie soundtrack; Transformation: The Best of Nona Hendryx; Nicky Holland's Sense and Sensuality; The Golden Palominos' A History (1982-1985); Alternative NRG; and Bill Laswell's Baselines. ~ Ed Hogan, Rovi