Thursday 29 November 2012

Nils Noa & Simon Baker

Thursday 29 November 2012

I visited Oslo on the weekend. What a beautiful city!
While I was there, I had a pretty epic night in which I visited Norway's 'top' club The Villa (as chosen by DJ Mag in '09) and saw Norway's baby-faced house meister Nils Noa play.
Do the words 'tech house' and 'Norway' seem like a funny combination to you? Maybe you think that 'disco' and 'Norway' are a better fit? I would have agreed. My Norwegian pal begged to differ.

The man Nils Noa is a pretty big deal in Oslo's 'scene'. Indeed, he is leading the charge when it comes to tech and deep house. His label Troll Records rivals the likes of Full Pupp, Smalltown Sound and Feedility and has seen the likes of Stacey Pullen, Of Norway, Christian Sol & Yousef grace it's release sheet.

His most recent piece of work (released earlier this year) was for fellow Norwegian duo Of Norway and their dubby, grimy electronica piece 'Blot Ditt Eige Lam'.
Noa gives this track a good, solid push onto the dancefloor with some hotted up percussion and a nicely rolling bassline. What I especially like about this track though is the retention of the mysterious, cinematic instrumentation from the original - they help to really give this track the foggy gloom that it needs:








Of Norway - Blot Ditt Eige Lam (Nils Noa Remix)

Check out Of Norway's 'Blog Dit Eige Lam' here. (There is no disco on there.)


Easily my favourite track with Noa's name attached to it though is this interpretation of 'Skogdans' which British house stalwart Simon Baker put together late last year. Dodging the quirky tribal feel of the original, Baker instead robes this number in soft synths and some huge, rounded bass stabs which help to inject delightfully serious funk into the whole affair. Simple - but absolutely effective. This one is your Thursday winner:








Nils Noa - Skogdans (Simon Baker's Traces Mix)

Grab Nils Noa's Skogdans here.. T'was a very nice release indeed.


And for a bit of trivia to finish up - Noa was the first Norwegian to put together a mix for Radio One's Essential Mix. I tried to find a copy of that, but didn't have any luck.
In it's place, here is a mix that Noa did on John Digweed's 'Transitions'' mix show back in the middle of '11.. Should get you into Friday rather nicely:




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