NIGHTMARES ON WAX & LUKE VIBERT

September 26th, 2019

1720 & Decibel Festival proudly present…

NIGHTMARES ON WAX (dj set)
Warp Records – UK

and

LUKE VIBERT aka WAGON CHRIST
Warp Records / Planet Mu / Hypercolour Records – UK

with support from

NORDIC SOUL (Happy Birthday Sean!)
Decibel Festival / Studio 4/4 – Los Angeles

ABOUT NIGHTMARES ON WAX
Iconic Warp mainstay Nightmares on Wax is announcing his long-anticipated return with new album Shape The Future. The marriage of soul, hip-hop, dub and timeless club sounds that N.O.W. has been mutating and perfecting for years finds perhaps its most fluid form yet on Shape The Future.

Energized by globetrotting runs of studio sessions and DJ sets, this latest salvo is a masterpiece of contemporary and classic genre-blending that solidifies Nightmares On Wax’s place as an inspirational electronic music figurehead. This includes the shamanistic vocals of recent single Back To Nature, and in particular the arresting voices of Mozez alongside Kanye West and Flume collaborator Allan Kingdom, as featured on brand new cut Citizen Kane.

Nightmares on Wax is one of the most influential artists of a generation, his music has inspired many musicians and producers across the globe over his quarter decade career. As Warp’s longest serving active artist, he has broadened the sound of the label and paved the way for artists such as Flying Lotus, Hudson Mohawke and Mount Kimbie.

ABOUT LUKE VIBERT
A whimsical producer behind stylistically varied releases under several names — including, most prominently, Wagon Christ, Plug, Kerrier District, and Amen Andrews — Luke Vibert also released many pieces of work under his own name. The native of Redruth, Cornwall, England got into performing through a punk band, and then with a rap group. He became interested in producing hip-hop and electronic music during the late ’80s. In 1993, he collaborated with Jeremy Simmonds for Weirs, an album of occasionally harsh IDM/neo-electro released on Rephlex, credited to Vibert/Simmonds. After he gained some notice as Wagon Christ, the first proper Luke Vibert album, a set of instrumental hip-hop titled Big Soup, followed for Mo’ Wax in 1997.

Vibert’s activity during the 2000s, including releases through retro-futuristic post-disco outlet Kerrier District, played out like a series of diversions rather than as a linear, predictable run of releases. Much of the output released under his birth name, however, incorporated acid — the liquid wriggles pioneered by Chicago house act Phuture’s overdriven Roland TB-303 basslines. Stop the Panic (Astralwerks, 2000) was a collaboration with pedal steel guitarist B.J. Cole. Vibert selected two volumes of library music, Nuggets: Luke Vibert’s Selection (2001) and Luke Vibert’s Further Nuggets (2002), for the Lo label. The compilations seemingly informed the synthesis of ’70s avant electronics, electro, and acid heard on YosepH (Warp, 2003).

Lover’s Acid (Planet Mu, 2005) applied acid to mostly downtempo productions; one of its track titles, “Analord,” was used by Cornwall pal Richard James for an extensive series of like-minded AFX EPs. Chicago, Detroit, Redruth (Planet Mu, 2007) wasn’t a total break from the previous release but roamed from alien ambient soundscapes to Edwin Birdsong-sampling acid-rap fusions. For Moog Acid (Lo, 2007), he teamed with French musique concrète figure Jean-Jacques Perry. Rhythm (Soundofspeed, 2008) anthologized a series of sample-heavy instrumental hip-hop EPs. Vibert closed out the decade with the diverse and typically humor-laced We Hear You (Planet Mu, 2009).

Luke Vibert’s Nuggets, Vol. 3 During the early 2010s, Vibert kept Wagon Christ active and revived drum’n’bass alias Plug for a collection of previously unreleased material. A third Nuggets compilation was released on Lo in 2013. Armed once more with the TB-303, he recorded Ridmik. Credited to Luke Vibert, it was released on the Hypercolour label in 2014. The following year saw the release of the mischievous Vibert album Bizarster and Kerrier District 4 (his first full-length under that name in nine years). Two contributions to the I Love Acid series preceded Luke Vibert Presents UK Garave, Vol. 1, an homage to the heydays of U.K. garage and rave that arrived in 2017. Luke has remixed a wide range of music artists such as Tortoise, Nine Inch Nails, Stereolab, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Meat Beat Manifesto, Thurston Moore, Coldcut, Lamb, David Sylvian to name a few.

ABOUT NORDIC SOUL
Nordic Soul aka Sean Horton has long been enamored with artistic expression, the creation of music, and the technology that fuses it all together. Today he is best known as founder, curator and president of the Decibel International Festival of Electronic Music Performance Visual Art and New Media in Seattle. In 2014, Sean was named #43 on Rolling Stone’s “50 Most Important People in EDM”: http://rol.st/1fHxj3D

Founded in 2003, Decibel Festival has become a unique platform for exposing attendees to leading-edge multimedia art from around the globe. With a focus on live performance, interactive multimedia art, state-of-theart sound and technology based education; Decibel has solidified itself as one of the premier electronic music festivals and promotional organizations in the world. The five-day festival program averages over 25,000 attendees

a year. Over the years Decibel has hosted hundreds of events, featuring over 1,000 unique performers from over 40 countries. Outside of the annual festival program, Decibel Events producers over 60 events per year, ranging from intimate club performances to massive international festival stages. For more info, visit https://dbfestival.com

Beyond his work with Decibel, Sean is an expert deejay, producer and performer who has been turning out dance floors since the late 90s. A lover of many musical styles, Nordic Soul’s interest and roots in techno, house, hip hop, azz, soul, industrial, ambient and dub contribute to his diverse musical palette. Since Nordic Soul’s inception in 2002, he has shared the stage with an eclectic cross section of international talent, including Bassnectar, Grimes, Moby, Major Lazer, Richie Hawtin, Boys Noize, Seth Troxler, Maya Jane Coles, Ben Klock, Modeselektor, DARKSIDE, Trentemoller, Four Tet, The Orb, Simian Mobile Disco, Moodymann, Duke Dumont, Scuba, Dusky, Green Velvet, Moderat, MK, Gui Boratto, Monolake, Mount Kimbie, Klingande, Matthew Dear, Luke Vibert, Theo Parrish, DJ Tennis, Roman Flugel, Huxley, Justin Martin, Danny Daze and Motor City Drum Ensemble. Sean has also performed at several major festivals world-wide, including Dimensions (Croatia), MUTEK (Montreal), Communikey (Boulder) and Decibel (Seattle). Nordic Soul has released music on a wide variety of labels including K Records, Buttermilk Records, Peloton and Basic_Sounds.