Hate - Nico (Dark Matter Mix) 1997

A collection of tracks recorded and mixed by Nico No U Turn featuring collaborations with DJ's mainly from  Barnes, London.   

Most uploaded tracks are from the original DAT masters.  

The 'No U Turn sound' known throughout the drum and bass scene was the culmination of a recording process, honed in over 4 years from 1992 in one room - a studio on the third floor of an industrial building in Acton, London.  

The repetition of DJ's making tracks at No U Turn, often cutting them as exclusive dub plates, playing them out in clubs then seeing the audience reaction before returning to base to try out another idea, led to the creation of a 'new bass sound’.  This essentially involved adding distortion to an already popular bass sound form the world of Jungle/Drum and Bass.  Nico got the idea of adding distortion to the bass from Larry Graham, the great American bass player.  By adding a little distortion to often deep bass lines, the bass could now be heard on even the smallest speakers.  
This bass sound, made No U Turn records stand out from the rest.  You could 'hear' a No U Turn release in a genre where a lot of records often sounded very similar.  

Another feature of a No U Turn record was the final mix down, which was always a live recording of the computer playing back the track whilst Nico 'dubbed' at the desk.  Minimal flicks of eq's and mutes, reverb splashes and sweeping of the bass frequencies were all done live during the final mix down.  
This is why the end of No U Turn record often sounds different from the beginning.  
Things have changed along the way.  
The dubbing process, added a dimension to these drum and bass records.  It made them a bit different. 

All the No U Turn records were completely inspired by the great records of the time.  
Doc Scott’s records in particular.  

BACK IN THE DAY
Nico: “Ed Rush grew up across the street.  His parents had jukebox and encouraged Ed’s love of music.  One summer Ed started playing me all these crazy records, unlike anything I’d ever heard.  These were UK hardcore records.  He had two turntables?  I thought it was weird.   I’d knock on Ed’s door and his mum would say:  “He’s upstairs….he’s in the mix.”  This must have been 1990.  
Ed Rush: “I just want to play out to a live audience, but it’s so hard to get a booking when no one knows who you are.”  
Nico: “How about you have a record with your name on it?  People might get to know you for the music you make and then you’d be nearer to getting a booking because people might have heard of you.”
Nico: “I’ve made records before but never this sort thing!  Let’s give it a go.  I’ve just bought a sampler.”

We made our first record.  Our third was a tune called Bludclot Artattack.   The plan worked.   

The No U Turn ethic was, and still is, about the power of effective collaboration.  
Nico:  “It's just more fun and often turns out better to make music with other people and a computer, rather than alone with the machine. “

Hate - Nico (Dark Matter Mix) 1997

messingaboutwithsounds