Saturday, November 21, 2009

Erast aka Nikakoi


I just got back from the magical land of Adelaide, overcast and thick with summer humidity. We went to the Taj Tandoor for the most delicious Chicken Madras and then headed to Cuckoo, where the 12 inch Phildo was playing some of his slightly more upbeat selections, including a new track by Pépé Bradock. He's put out some very groovy and bass-led tracks through BBE, and well worth some investigation if you like house music with intelligent rhythms and a bit of funk influence. He's also remixed some respected names in the darker avenues of house - Charles Webster, Manuel Tur (Freerange), and, in a more leftfield vein, Pete Namlook.
Otherwise it's been a quiet week of sonic experiments. I've been putting a lot of work into a new track called "Magnum", that's based around a microkorg arpeggio. It's a beautiful creature and I hope it will be the first of many bits of hardware that I can work into compositions and bring along to DJ sets.
There have also been some nice musical discoveries - a charming couple who call themselves The Long Lost, and specialise in indie pop with an electronic influence and a lot of soul. The other discovery is Erast, who also goes by the name of Nikakoi (his real name is Nika Machaidze, and he's from Georgia). He's signed to Laboratory Instinct - check out laboratoryinstinct.com - and his artistic focus is film direction, which makes for some fascinating and unique composition. His latest album, "Selected", is a crunchy and diverse experience that spans 30 tracks. There's conventional chillout reminiscent of Afterlife (City Lights [Tutta2]), but also experimental electronica - Krasnagorsky Dream is a rich, organic piece with textures that recall The Field. He's also comfortable with string arrangement - you can get a taste of this on "My Right Hand". The rhythmic elements reminded me of Apparat (from BPitch Control), but the production was a little more satisfying.

You can check out one of his more delicate tracks here

Tin Soldier

and there's much more to be had on myspace and the regular online stores.

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