The First Army Of The Nomadic Kids Republic

As part of our ongoing efforts to present to you the vast amount of excellent new material released recently, Fluid are proud to present this showcase of the Nomadic Kids Republic, a culmination of four years worth of work between various artists – designers and musicians like Hitoshi Ishihara, Davi Liu, Jonathan Jindra, Leif Folkvord, Ben Jones, Mike Smallfish, Brock Van Wey, Jeremy Bible, Jonny Dillon, Craig Tattersall, Andrew Hargreaves, Danny Norbury, Jason Corder, Jonathan Canupp, Boris Snauwaert, and many more.

The label is primarily run by ‘The Poncho Wearing Nomad’ Ian Hawgood and ‘The Visual Kid’ Christian Roth, boasting an impressive roster of acts – “The Audio Republic” – bvdub, Hawgood, Lefolk, offthesky, Haruki, Ten and Tracer, Naoto Taguchi, Maps and Diagrams, The Green Kingdom, Juxta Phona, Polar M, Taishi Kamiya and Konntinent.

Sound impressive? It certainly is.

“Nomadic Kids Republic is a small label based primarily in Japan. We love mulching, glitching, bleeping, droning, toning and sleeping. We also like milky tea but that‘s another matter. We release various editions with a focus on simplicity and minimalism in design; organic, electronic or just plain weird, in sound…” – NKR

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bvdub & Ian Hawgood – The Truth Hurts

“Brock and Ian were introduced to each other through Mike, who ran a small but perfectly formed record label and shop called Smallfish Records. Mike had this crazy idea that Brock and Ian were like two musical peas in a pod and that they should work together. Mike wasn’t wrong, and the first musical product of this ‘pod- dom’ was Brock’s own bvdub release ‘Tribes at the Temple of Silence ‘ on Ian’s label – Home Normal. The second is a musical collaboration between the two titled ‘The Truth Hurts.”- NKR

This heavyweight collaboration opens with the strongly titled ‘Nothing You Want Will Ever Come True’ and is everything you could expect of the pairing of the two like minds; the crystalline electronic textures, deep field of sound, evocative sound design and oceanic waves of drone, punctuated by delayed vocals that sweep across the coastal night like a blinding lighthouse beam. This twelve minute epic pairs choral uplift with affecting looping, creating what may be the opening track of the year. ‘Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Pretender’ follows, another labyrinthine ten-minute plus exploration of tone and space. Hidden layered vocals and chiming guitar pierce the same night’s landscape like bright stars and moon through cloud. ‘Lie In Lone’ starts in a more modest fashion, before swirling synth tones lift from each side of the horizon. A massive, sprawling twenty-minute exploration of loneliness, separation and emptiness may sound like rough listening, but it is thankfully as exhilarating as it is bleak. Closer ‘Your Grand Finale (A Theater Of One)’ is just that, a complete narrative in twenty-four minutes of stellar and evocative entirety.

“All profits from this release will go to relief funds in Japan, directly used by Ian’s wife who is currently working with both the Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support organisation (JEARS) in Sendai and surrounding areas, as well as the Direct Help for Victims and Animals Rejected from Shelters in Japan group who are going up to areas which are not receiving government support for food, water, basic supplies, as well as rebuilding and cleaning up.” – NKR

Lefolk – Intermitter

“Lefolk is audio/video artist Leif Folkvord of Grand Rapids, Michigan USA. Sven Swift (12rec) told me years ago to check his work out – at the time Leif had been doing some fabulously designed and unique sounding work which instantly caught me off-guard as it seemed to sit in a very different place to a lot of the scenes at the time.” – NKR

“Intermitter” is an impressive construction of glitch, faint static and drone; well described by NKR as unconventional; there are staples of various genres recognizable in faint form, but all with subtle kinks and distinctive differentiations. Tasteful pulsing beat work permeates tracks like ‘Varia’, ‘Develop’, ‘Shrap’ and ‘Downpour’, whilst other pieces distinguish themselves with an intelligent and melodic electronic mood.

offthesky – Subtle Trees

“As a sort of pantheist, or at least an artist who finds great stories hiding in the vast visual subtleties of nature –“ Subtle Trees” is a classical music collage as much as it is an homage to classical music. Its core is created through sounds gathered in the owl hours by sampling ancient instruments whose cores were derived from the trees of nature.” – NKR

“Suble Trees” offers up more organic fare, engaging a broad range of field textures, instrumental tones, electronic layering, and percussive motifs, with a crisp static and clatter in amongst these elements. There’s a strong dynamic variation in this release, with distinct colours visible from one track to the next. Standout track ‘Tight Phase of Pollen Inertia’ seems to best embody the ethos of the record, with wooden chimes swaying through the forest-like spectrum, placing you centrally in a Japanese wood at night. ‘Slow Pulse of Epocal Light’ places you in the same wood, closer to the dawn.

Haruki – Falling

“Haruki is the pseudonym of composer/sonic artist Boris Snauwaert from Ghent, Belgium, who creates sonic environments through the precise, meditated amalgamation of a diverse variety of sounds, both musical and non-musical. In any given track Haruki combines any or all sound sources; field recordings, acoustic instruments, acoustic noises, found samples, sampled instruments and so on. Lots a bass instruments are used such as tuba, double bass, and the ilk, alongside some circuit bent keyboards, piano, stomp boxes, field recordings, among other things. This gives it a wonderfully organic feel and development, and unlike a lot of laptop-based music, its much more live sounding, perhaps an appropriate background being a seedy Brussels bar” –NKR

Whilst Haruki may occupy the same general musical territory as offthesky, there are a few distinctive points of separation, as the guttural bottom end of opening track ‘Shrinking Cities’ makes abundantly clear. The strident and visceral ‘When To Stumble and When To Fall’ also moves into a much more cinematic and (in places) noir-ish sphere. The humming bass tones give this release a weighty punch, and any of the four pieces could sit alongside releases of any exponent of restrained dark ambient with dignity. “So, Now We’re Even’, despite its vindictive name, is a more emotionally even piece – less oppressive than some that precede it, doing a good job of clearing the sound palette before rumbling closer ‘Tall As Tails’.

Ten and Tracer – Friendless Now

“Jonathan Canupp is a name you should know but probably don’t, but then again might. He records under Ten and Tracer and I’ve been into his records for ages and ages now. Back when I was checking out early net label releases, Jonathan came up as one of two people whose work in their entirety I just fell in love with. He makes wonderful IDM music and in fact I may have asked him years ago now to make us a ‘meaty beaty’ record. And along he comes with the very cheek of making some sublimely evolved, subtly woven record using violin, tape machines, guitars, maybe some keyboards and other stuff too.” – NKR

Wonderfully evolved is right – there are some lovely funereal horn stabs amongst the lilting static and texture in opening track ‘Homeans Distraction’.  This slides nicely into second track ‘Glas Conducts’, which match the textural field of the first. The record reminds in some places of a very stripped back version of the first album mentioned in this article “The Truth Hurts”, albeit with a more comatose sound.

Having not heard of Canupp before, I was immediately struck with the strong grasp he has of the concept of the “album”; all songs flow into each other with obvious thought and precision, and considerable thought appears to have been given to the tracking. Pieces don’t overstay their welcome, and appear to have been designed to craft the mood of the album overall, as opposed to being a random collection of songs assorted in whatever order seems to fit.

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All the releases reviewed here are available for pre-order from the Nomadic Kids web site. All releases are moderately price pointed, and are all well worth the low cost of admission. With a staggering roster and an incredibly impressive inaugural set of releases, NKR appears to be set to take listeners by storm.

- Review by Alex Gibson for Fluid Radio

www.nomadickids.com