TRACKLIST
Playdate
Playdate (Steve Duda Remix)
Playdate (Obsidian Remix)
Cherenkov Light
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Nonplus, the entity, the purveyor of MIDI has made a song that is capable of bringing the universe to a standstill in order to focus it’s energy on the beautifully orchestrated sounds of Playdate.
Playdate is a song that can be listened to for the next 100 years. Life without Nonplus is no life at all. The mysterious yet innovative vocals set the tone for a story nobody will forget. As you go down this unforgettable path of wisdom and atonalism you’re hit with a sudden realization of truth. This truth can set you free from the everyday reality we all breathe beneath the steel sky.
Steve Duda, need we say more, has created a remix out of bliss. He took what some would call the cauldron of eternity and turned it into the mortal being it needed to be. There was no other option as it had to be Steve.
Obsidian, the master of bass, has brought the original a whole new flavor. He carefully executed this remix in a lawless manner with no regard for faces! Your face is going to melt, we guarantee it. This remix finishes off our most anticipated release of the year. Be the first to get a copy.
Cherenkov Light was forged out of raindrops and a serious knowledge of sound. Nonplus shows off just how deep his skills can penetrate the sonic layer of our souls. This song is one with universe, it is nature, it is everything we can’t understand and everything we can. True bliss.
Look out for the Nonplus “North By Northwest EP” with a special remix by John Tejada coming soon!
“In a world where cookie cutter tracks and preset sounds have become the norm, Nonplus delivers a vision of the future.” – Bill Hamel
“beautiful, dark, body, mind music…….” – BT
For more quality releases like this one please visit www.synthcity.net
NONPLUS Q&A
How would you describe your sound?
Crystalline: shimmery sparkles with edges that draw blood.
Post-structualist Pop.
Technically, it’s modal medieval music realized with particularly intricate and involved synthesis and production. But, while the gear is an integral aspect of music like Electro, Pop music is about telling a story (communication). People need to relate to the song – it needs to be familiar on some level. It’s really easy to make pop with a guitar or piano because they are familiar. The more weird timbres in your song, the more difficult it is for people to relate to. When a song like “Playdate” that’s full of seriously mean, ugly, unfamiliar sounds comes across as light and friendly and relatable, that’s a huge triumph. There’s a deep, complex subtext that is totally easy to miss. And that’s exactly what I wanted. It’s like the opposite of IDM or skronky jazz or math rock – music that prides itself in pushing away casual listeners.
Example: I totally love pieces like “Gantz Graf” (Autechre). I want to make music of a depth and horror, yet so compelling that the listener forgets to run away. Don’t scare: capture them. Then, put the lotion in the basket.
So: Nonplus is about telling familiar stories with “alien” music. (and maybe a little bit about impeccable synthesis and production)
How did you get into making music?
My father played guitar and bass so it seemed natural to learn to play instruments. I played snare in band, took rock & jazz kit lessons, learned classical guitar, played classical bass in orchestra, and taught myself electric bass copying John Taylor and Peter Hook. I never took piano but since I loved synthpop, I ended up owning drum machines and synthesizers.. Oh, yeah: I was into electronics so I actually built my first synthesizer when I was Junior High; built an almost working (LOL) sampler in High School electronics lab. And, I was a computer geek that whole time.
Who are your major influences?
Insides, Scala, Skinny Puppy, My Bloody Valentine, His Name Is Alive … Harthouse, Rephlex, Renegade Hardware … Schoenberg, Gorecki … Marguerite Duras, Rumi, Lovecraft, PKD … Expressing things in unusual ways and learning to see yourself and the world through stranger eyes. The sound of one heart, breaking. redshift. The Planck Length. Hideous Siphonophorae.
What do you use to make music?
just regular gear
I work with a lot of cutting edge gear doing consulting for other artists, but I rarely buy it for myself. I’m always like 2 generations back buying stuff on closeout. I use a mix of plugins and hardware. I’m actually quite curious what people think I use. “Playdate” doesn’t sound like anything I’ve ever heard.. and it’s mostly analog(!).
What process do you go thru to make a track?
When I was writing techno, I would sit down and jam with just an analog synth and a drum machine — no computer. That’s the essence of old school techno — like Underground Resistance or Hardfloor. Wth Nonplus music, the process is pretty different: top-down, goal oriented design. The vocal pieces are stories I’m telling. I know what I want the final song to feel like and have an idea of the sounds I want to use before I sit down with the machines.
The instrumental pieces come about all kinds of different ways. Sometimes they’re tangents — places I ended up “by accident” while working on one of the vocal pieces. There’s a song on the album called “Der Liebestrank” that is over 10 minutes long. It was written in under 45 minutes as a speed writing / composition exercise.
I am easily bored, so I guess I like to give each piece some special value in my head. “You’re microtonal!” “You have a duophonic bass line” “I never heard you all the way through until you were finished”.
The songs with Christiane were all recorded as poems. Sprechgesang. She didn’t speak/sing to any music because none existed at the time of her reading. The music was written afterwards around her voice, which is why it sits so well despite being a-melodic. That’s how I prefer to work, but some vocalists can’t work like that so I throw together a scratch track with a drum loop and a bass line in a complementary key. After that, I find a motif I like and build around it.
One thing that shocks …well, everyone, is that I generally shun percussion while writing. Like: the percussion you hear on my songs is usually the last thing I wrote. The groove is in my head, and ends up in one of the other parts — like, in “Playdate”, it’s in that sick Moog bass. In another song, “North By Northwest”, it’s actually Christiane’s prosody – the trochaic pentameter of the vocals is echoed by a syncopated techstep inspired virus bass line.
Of course, the process often gets sidetracked to go off on adventures with new sounds, experiment with new synthesizers, or hijacked by computers crashing or other gear totally breaking down.
How did you come up with your name?
A chess game ends two ways: with a victory (checkmate), or a draw (stalemate). “Nonplus” is another term for stalemate — literally: unable to advance, in Latin. Or: like Joshua/WOPR’s ephiphany at the end of “Wargames”. A lot of people think of the French phrase “non plus”, like the fabulous, so-called obscene, Gainsbourg song. I don’t mind the misattribution. But, that’s not what I meant.
The modern definition of nonplus is: “a state of bewilderment or perplexity” or “to put at a loss for words”. Those seemed apt for the reactions I usually get from people when they hear my songs (or jokes).
What is your fav artists to listen to while driving?
Girls Aloud, The Saturdays, Ke$ha. Passengers …tend to be nonplussed.
Where do you live and how would you describe the scene there?
I’ve lived in San Francisco, DC, New York City, and Hawai’i.
Presently I reside in Helios Angeles. There’s all kinds of great stuff here . It’s totally hit or miss going out — parties with horrible music going off, parties with great artists that are dead.
I miss R’lyeh — that’s my scene.
How has this influenced your style?
There was a time, back when I was an O.G. East Coast Raver, that I, like all humans, wanted to fit in — wanted to make music my peers thought was cool. I failed at that. People were mostly confused, disturbed. Other musicians appreciated its technical merits, but that didn’t make it “cool”. After a while, I just gave up. What was the point?
That was the 90s.
At some point in the early 21st century, the electroclash era, I realized I missed making music. Electroclash reminded me of my love of New Wave and Synthpop (my first favorite band was Devo; i heard “Planet Rock” on WKYS before it was released, the judges at the High School talent show didn’t clap – just stared after I performed my Baudelaire inspired industrial music). But, as a raver, a techno snob, a techstep fan, etc., it was my duty to look down on pop. Right?
But, why? There were synthetic pop songs – “Don’t You Want Me”, “Are Friends Electric?”, “Warm Leatherette” – that remain masterpieces. Certainly, there was no shame in writing music like that.
Uh-oh: songs need lyrics… and an entirely different song structure. And this answer is getting really long so we’ll save that for the sequel.
Over the years what progression of dance music genres have you fallen in love with to bring you to where you are now? Early 80s: I religious listened to Casey Kasem every Sunday morning after church, and listened to New Wave on college radio stations every night. 10 years later I would be a music director at a college radio station. Funny how that works.
Late 80s: industrial music!
Early 90s: raver, including performing live techno at warehouse parties and dj’ing college radio.
Working at a college radio station was the best thing ever: I learned so much — not just about the music I liked but about so many other kinds of music from people who truly loved it.
Late 90s: d’n’b (not jungle!) all the way
This century: loved electroclash’s 15 minutes. But I mostly listen to new wave classics from the 80s and random British or Swedish electro-pop… and, a shallow but sincere fondness for Death Metal.
For more info on NONPLUS please check out https://www.facebook.com/nonplus.music
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“If these songs were electrons my nucleus would be happy.” – Meliss FX
“I want more Nonplus, these tracks are phenomenal.” – Matt Simmers from Terravita
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