Ahead of the release of Defected presents Nick Curly In The House, Kristan J Caryl takes a closer look at what makes the Mannheim man tick.
At this point in time, Nick Curly is writing a new chapter in the story of his musical life. After six years of running Cécille Records and establishing it as a go to label for fans of a certain strain of house music, the label is going on extended hiatus after the release of the 6 Years of Cécille compilation. It means that from now on Curly’s prime focus will be on his other label 8Bit, where he will hone in once again on the deep and tracky tech house sound that made him so well known in the first place. What’s more, the German is about to enter a pantheon of DJ greats with his entry into Defected’s hallowed In the House mix series.
So unique is the deeply infectious style of music that Curly has championed that in recent years it has come to be known as the Mannheim sound. It’s a world away from the wishy-washy dishwasher tech that has been berated in recent times; instead Curly’s music is full of soul, infectious groove and ponderous melody that speaks to more than just your feet.
“The typical Nick Curly sound is loopy tech house,” offers the man himself, no doubt mindful of his own self-released and enduring EPs like Azylum and Dubnoise. “I have an EP coming out in that style in November – it’s back to more like the stuff I started with; the Mannheim sound that helped launched my international career. People, especially DJs, expect this from me and I know DJs are playing it already.”
Aside from Nick himself, proponents of the style include friends Johnny D and Marcus Fix who released genre-defining EPs like Requiem of a Dream and El Comienzo on Cécille and 8Bit respectively in the past. “There were certain artists that got lost after the initial hype, and some of them took time off to have kids,” says Nick with candour. “But now they are coming back and the next releases on the label are really strong. I'm super happy about them now and I’ve changed the way I work on the label because, rather than going to artists for music, I want to build a family crew, maybe a new party concept and much more. It’s time for the next step.”
Of course this tracky music differs from his 2012 debut album, Between the Lines, in that it is resolutely focussed on the dancefloor, is heavily groove based and aims only to get people moving their bodies rather than exploring a more home-listening style. Somewhere in between both was the healthy selection of remixes that followed the album, including names like Uner, Adam Port, Guti and Larry Heard. Most importantly of all, though, US house heavyweight Dennis Ferrer was also enlisted.
“Dennis works closely with Defected, so when I asked him to do a remix he sent it to Simon Dunmore. Simon got in touch and really liked it. He wanted to sign the remix but asked to hear the whole album and when I sent it he wanted to release that, too!”
As such and 8 months after its initial release, Between the Lines got a re-release on Defected in November 2012 and a fruitful new relationship was born. The next step in that relationship will be Nick following in the footsteps of Loco Dice by mixing it up for Defected’s long running and highly esteemed mix series, In The House. It’s a perfect hook up given how much Curly and his labels have defined the modern house landscape in recent times, but also makes perfect sense because Nick has been a DJ much longer than he has a producer.
It was in fact at the age of just 15 when he was first installed as resident at the legendary Vibration Club in the Karlsruhe region of Germany, but before long he was taking his inimitable DJ style to clubs across Europe and eventually the world, so that now there is barely a territory he hasn’t played at least once. Womb in Tokyo, Sonus Festival in Croatia, D-Edge in Brazil, Eastern Electrics Festival In London, Love Family Park in Germany and Gypsy Club in Russia, for example, have all hosted headline sets from Nick in the last 12 months.
As for the In The House tracklisting, it makes for great reading and touches on a coherent but comprehensive range of house styles in much the same way as did his many sets out in Ibiza this summer gone. Although in the past Nick was a regular resident for Kehakuma at Space and very much helped to define the musical outlook of the party for many years (even mixing a compilation to sum up the season back in 2012), he spread his wings much further in 2013.
“Summer was great this year. The main thing for me was playing more festivals compared to the year before. I left Kehakuma and played in many different clubs. I did a few parties for Pacha and Defected, I played with Solomun and with Luciano and I really enjoyed it. It was a new experience, there were some really cool parties and this year I played as the main act of the night instead of opening up, which was great.“
Back on the subject of being part of the In The House series, Nick is palpably excited about the hook up when asked. “It’s a great honour. It’s the best compilation series you can do and I definitely play all the old Dennis Ferrer and Osunlade releases from the label’s past. It’s by far the biggest house label, or maybe even the biggest label of any sort in the scene, and sure, they do commercial stuff, but they have always done proper house music, too.”
As for his approach to the two-disc mix, it changed during the recording process. At first he was going to do a home then club mix, but instead has decided to offer two different club sets: the first an early doors warm up sound, the second a darker, more late night style. “Of course, I have used some music from people in my crew in the mix, but that wasn’t a main priority,” he says refreshingly. “Instead it’s just a mix of old and new and unreleased stuff.” Included along the way is the timeless deep house of Schatraxx’s ‘Mists’, works from Curly peers like Nekes, Gorge and Johnny D and classics like Afrilounge’s ‘Lux Dementia’ and Peace Division’s ‘Revival’ making the whole thing a wide screen vision of house, just as it should be.
There is soon to be lots more material from the man released into the world, too, as Nick is heading back into his studio. “I am working on lots more stuff but I also like to play techno, not just house. I like all electronic music so what I write all depends how I feel.” Although he has already achieved so much in a relatively short space of time, it seems that now Nick Curly is more enthused and creatively hungry than ever, which can only be a good thing for fans of underground electronic music.
Words: Kristan J Caryl
Photo credit: Gavin Mills
Defected presents Nick Curly In The House is out 26th January - order from iTunes and Amazon
