MAAYAN NIDAM レコード& CD

Review: REPRESS ALERT: After launching Brush & Broom with two solo releases, maverick German producer Kalbata keeps his followers guessing yet again with this collaborative release with the equally unpredictable Maayan Nidam. "The Town" is a surefire party starter made up of catchy bleep lines, quivering rhythmic flashes and lots of shimmering FX sends that suggest this was a live jam from two talented producers locked in the groove. "Chrome Moon" takes a deeper, more meditative approach without losing those heavy echo chamber washes, where the spring reverb and buckwild delay feedback rein supreme. Wonderful, free-tripping results from an unexpected meeting of minds.

Review: Cult label hosting a very well established, if often under-the-radar proponent of the heads down, party-starting but intelligent side of house and techno. Doesn't sound like the worst combination in the world, in many ways Habe ich Gewonnen? is indicative of Maayan Nidam's studio progression, an artist who has long toyed with sounds similar to this EP while building a strong back catalogue on more 'straight up' imprints such as Perlon and Cadenza. Across four tunes things are resolutely non-conformist but instantly engaging and accessible. The loose, jazz-hued broken joy of 'Ice Bear', the jerky, off-kilter minimal lunge of 'In Reverence', pared back percussive wobble on the title track, and the post-punk styled 'Le Petit Mort' are all exceptional pieces, packed with musicality and ideas that go well beyond where many dancefloors stop.

Review: Having allowed pal Hubble to handle the first vinyl release on his Hellium imprint, Maayan Nidam is rightly at the controls on release number two. What we get is a trio of untitled tracks, beginning with an A-side excursion that tends towards the more aquatic and opaque end of the deep techno spectrum - all gentling pulsing ambient chords, fluid electronic motifs and a kick-drum driven groove so deep it could well nestle at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. He opens the B-side with a more angular and off-kilter chunk of modular techno (think broken rhythms, melancholic chords, distant percussion hits and undulating acid lines), before rounding things off with a more spacey-sounding slab of deep sci-fi techno.

Review: There is undoubtedly, a current crop of female producers that are shaking the foundations of house and techno. But when one of the most exciting and freshest sounding of these producers teams up with one of the most diverse labels of the scene, the results are likely to be more extraordinary than they were expected. Maayan Nidam has been pushing the boundaries of minimal house and techno under her Miss Fitz moniker for over three years now, but now arrives on New York label Wolf + Lamb’s tenth release as part of her more recent excursions under her own name. A slight detour from the imprint’s recent run of deep house records, Nidam delivers a genre-hopping EP of her intriguing ideas.



Lead track "sitin" is the only dancefloor orientated cut on the release. It has a cheeky and playful sound, boasting a spaced out mid-tempo house groove driven by a deliriously funky and wonkily hypnotic bassline. Emphatic vocal stabs of ‘feel it’ help the track to build before allowing the groove to lure the listener away into its climatic funk. "Merry Go Round" is a seductively slow paced jaunt into hip-hop and R&B. Built around an erotically charged Barry White sample, the track draws an abundance of passion out of a laidback and easily flowing groove. Taking things further afield, "Na Und" is a downtempo investigation of reversed samples and slow, slinky jazz percussion. Atonal and ambiguous sounds unravel from its wonky spine, taking the listener to an unexpected yet pleasant place. Finishing her four track exploration, "Better Stop" builds on Nidam’s bubbling sense of funk with a sublime 100bpm groove and some loop heavy samples.



The "Greatest Tits" EP represents the kind of diversity that only labels like Wolf + Lamb are capable of delivering in such a listenable way. With this opportunity, Maayan Nidam was able to use the four track format to explore her various styles whilst taking us on a mystical and sensory journey.