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Nôze
Body Language Vol 11 mixed by Nôze

Between earthy livesets and albums rich in influences and musicality (as Dring, their fourth album, came to remind us of that last year), we would have almost forgotten that Nôze (Nicolas Sfintescu and Ezéchiel Pailhes) could also give to the feverish mix. Well-judged then from M.A.N.D.Y., Get Physical bosses and Body Language compilation investigators, who asked Nico, the DJ from the duo, to take a close look at the eleventh opus of this cult series which already hosted some very gifted artists.

After Dj T., Jesse Rose, Dixon, Château Flight, Junior Boys, Matthew Dear, Modeselektor, Dj Hell and M.A.N.D.Y. twice, it is now the turn of the co-creator of the appealing ‘When Tiger Smoked’ and ‘Kitchen’ (and co-founder of Parisian label Circus Company) to make our eager bodies sweat. The result: an almost 75 minute eclectic love declaration where most of the musical obsessions of the French duo are gathered.

By choosing Nôze, M.A.N.D.Y. made a good call, all the more so as the idea had been going through Nico’s head for a while. “Body Language, it’s a compilation that I have known for some time now and I have been talking about it with Philipp from M.A.N.D.Y. for a while too. I tried to combine classic Get Physical sounds with Circus Company ideas, but also the Nôze touch and tracks that I would only play as a DJ like for instance the one from Dennis Ferrer and Jerôme Sydenham ‘A Drumstick And A Light Future’, which is a very old school track, one of these good old American house-y tracks. I tried to bring all this together, giving the mix a story, and a unifying theme at the same time.“

Do not expect to find a tracklist gathering only dancefloor killers or recent releases. “If we release a compilation that has Nôze’s name on it, it’s not to put in there all the summer hits. It has to match what we want to do and say with our music.” Explains Nico, who is very happy to see three months of intense work and reflection finally released. Thus, the listener is carried on a lively musical path, with both meticulous and natural transitions. A true picture of Nôze’s universe, with its breathings, its rises and its swoops. “It really sounds like the way I play as a DJ. I believe that if you only try to go one better, it gets annoying. And if you do a very linear thing, it’s nice… but just for driving on the highway!“

From the opening jam-session-techno of ‘HMG 2’, first glimpse of Hemingway, the new keyboard-drum machine-electronic drum project from Ezéchiel and Nico with drummer Emiliano Turi, to the irrefutable Ornette’s ‘Crazy’ remix that just topped iTunes electronic chart, this eleventh opus of the Body Language series is filled with nuggets carefully edited by the DJ-producer and does not sound like one of those simple 90’s mixtapes. “Almost all the tracks were edited, except maybe one or two, to better fit each other. A practice that does not help building a tracklist calmly: that was a problem when I had to go through the ins and outs of the tracks (Nico smiles). I made this mix thinking that it had to be a whole, with many songs and voices. Something quite human in the end. And also something that you can hear in many different places, at home cooking in the morning, before going out, etc.“ Even a Jeff Buckley acappella could have started this mix if the rights had been granted. Just to show you how open-minded the chap is.

Throughout the listening, you meet some tempting UFOs, like the cult ‘Tu Veux Ou Tu Veux Pas‘ from the unpredictable French jazzman Zanini (“which sounds like what we like to do as Nôze, that is a little funny and hot”) or the sparkling ‘Amor Do Olinda’, a both pleasant and mysterious track devised by Nico: “You will never guess where the voice comes from! That’s something that I bought in Brazil, a project from a favela in the northeast, a very particular music from Pernambuco that is called ‘coco’, a fisherman’s music,” - revealing the DJ’s love of the South-American country. The rest is a perfectly balanced mix between downtempo House and Deep Techno inspirations. The tracks are combined with pleasure and softness, with some superb epiphanies, like the association of Alejandro Mosso’s ‘Pampa’ and Nicolas Jaar’s ‘Russian Dolls’: obvious.

Before returning to his numerous coming projects (a new Nôze album is notably in the pipeline) “Nico from Nôze” delivers us a delicious ‘waiting message’, full of love and craziness. All in all, it captures the very essence of Body Language compilations.

TOUR DATES

May. 12 : Hamburg (DE) : Nôze, Docks

May. 24 : Jena (DE) : Nico from Nôze Dj Set, Villa am Paradies

May. 26 : Cisternino (IT) : Nôze, Mavù

May. 27 : Amsterdam (NL) : Nôze, Amsterdam Open Air

May. 31 : Paris (FR) : Nico From Nôze, Body Language Release Tour Party @ Rex Club

Jun. 1 : Florence (IT) : Nôze, MUV Festival

Jun. 2 : Napoli (IT) : Nico from Nôze, Arenile

Jun. 9 : London (UK), Nôze, Coronet Theater

Jun. 14 : Vienna (AT) : Nôze, Pratersauna

Jun. 22 : Moscow (RU) : Nôze, Stariki Bar

Jun. 29 : Munich (DE), Nico from Nôze, Circus Night