Nomine’s fourth and perhaps most enchanting 12” to-date lands on Tempa just as summer draws to a close and the festive celebrations at Outlook are sealed on a high. Unveiling more of his shadowy enigma, Nomine continues to make special appearances at Youngsta’s Contact events captivating his audience with a hypnotic sound system experience. At the centre of these sonic transmissions lie three compositions which carve out vast spaces for mind and body to wander.
Beautifully executed on the lead track, ‘Nomine’s Chant’ is not your average dancefloor number but an example of how maximised space can build a majestic piece of music fabricated around exotic melodies and subliminal details. Either play it as a set opener or closer, or as an interim between heavier tracks, ‘Nomine’s Chant’ will subdue you with its vocal mantra gracefully flowing through the soundscape of strings and pulses of sub-bass.
Nomine returns to the more traditional half-step structures on ‘Ninjah’ which can catch you off guard like its namesake. Adopting his trademark echo-drenched samples and murky synths, ‘Ninjah’ creeps through the bamboo flute soundfield before lurching forward on a tide of ethereal bass movement and toughened metallic percussion.
To round-off this meticulously curated record, Nomine once again enters the 120-130 bpm territory with a sleeky dub techno club track packed with style and groove. Reflecting the compulsive formula of ‘128.1’ and ‘Mindfulness’, ‘Syncopator’ is built on a balanced framework of neoteric aesthetics and rich melodic chords.
Nomine’s sound has been a true sensory experience and an audacious exploration of the 140 template. He’s ability to balance melody and space with club dynamics gives him extensive depth to build adventurous music expressed upon a foundation of experimental sound design. His four records encapsulate a body of work which set the pretext for his highly anticipated forthcoming album, a project which could potentially be one of the most interesting takes on underground bass music.
TEMPA093 is out now and available from Juno Download.
