Nicholas: Bonus Beats Vol 1

Has it really been this long? I looked through all of my records and write-ups and when that failed I fell back to Googling, and it seems it’s been quite awhile since I’ve seen anything from Nicholas, the Italian producer that vaulted to prominence on the back of several exquisite vinyl-only records for 4 Lux, Hometaping and No More Hits. The scarcity of material (there have been a couple) in the last two years has been rather abrupt, considering he released something like 30 records (on wax!) from 2010 to 2013 – a pace that few well-established labels could match, let alone an individual and (in the first two years anyway) mostly unheralded producer.

This marks a low-key return to Hometaping Is Killing Music which released Nicholas’ “Love Message” and “Music Lives” from the salad days of 2012 and 2013, respectively. The title is deceptive and seemingly aiming to lower expectations: far from some stripped down tools or edits, this is more of what you want: deep, funky and luscious but tasteful with samples of disco and jazz that always fit and never get cheesy. The A-Side tracks, “Hot Nights” and “ATMO” (featuring Paul Cuts) are especially good.