Show Notes
Nichols+Roark are a London-based DJ and production duo whose sound sits between progressive house, indie dance and melodic techno.
Friends for more than 25 years, their music draws on a shared club history shaped by nights at venues and parties including Renaissance in Nottingham and Ibiza. Their releases have landed on labels including The Soundgarden, Mango Alley and Renaissance, while their 2019 track “Magnificent Creatures” was featured on Nick Warren’s Balance Presents The Soundgarden.
Recent years have also seen the duo develop Shift, their own label platform. Its official launch at Crane Faralda during ADE marks the next major step, with Shift Season 1 set to introduce a hand-picked roster of artists and new material in one of the pair’s favourite cities.
On this Balance Selections, the duo draw on their combined tastes for a two-hour mix featuring tracks from Mano Le Tough, Kamilo Sanclemente, Paul Hazendonk and more. The result is a hazy, hypnotic journey into the spacey fringes where indie dance meets progressive house.
@nicholsandroark
Tracklisting & interview: balancemusic.com.au/balance-selections-383-nicholsroark
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More from Balance Selections Podcast
The title track ‘Run For Cover’ taps into the wide-eyed escapism of the mid-’90s without slipping into nostalgia. Psychedelic details flicker across the drums like LED trails in a dark room, while a restless walking bassline gives the whole thing a wonderfully physical pull. Elements drift in and out of focus, resisting an obvious genre tag while maintaining an easy, heads-down momentum. It’s progressive music in the literal sense: constantly moving, never particularly interested in announcing where it’s going next.
On “Stupa”, the mood opens outward. There’s an unmistakable Balearic quality to its sun-warmed percussion and serrated bassline,a groove that immediately suggests open-air dancefloors and late-afternoon light. A woozy synth gradually sends proceedings into more narcotic territory, while soft vocal fragments, keyboard flourishes and flashes of guitar keep one foot planted somewhere recognisably human. Nothing is hurried or overplayed. Instead, Warren lets each element breathe, resulting in the kind of patient, transportive dance music that comes from knowing exactly how little you need to do.
Colombian DJ NAJEYS has developed a sound rooted in the melodic and hypnotic strains of progressive house. With a background in vocals and percussion, she began exploring electronic music in 2016, developing an approach to DJing that balances driving rhythms, atmospheric textures and emotive melodies.
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