Long-time label compadre Nicolas Masseyeff returns to Romboy’s Systematic with three more superlative cuts. 

If you have so much as glanced at Nico’s discography you’ll know to expect the unexpected and that all styles and ideas are welcomed in his broad tech church. This EP is yet another perfect example, and it’s all held together with a loose air-born theme in the titles. 

We kick off with ‘Fug 224’. Subtly referenced by the radar title, it’s one of Nicolas’s darkest tracks to date as it pitches us 15,000ft in the air, slap bang centre of a bitter WW2 dogfight. Turbines mutating with manic modulation, it’s paranoid, chaotic and sure to melt minds this summer. 

Ever in search of equilibrium, Nicolas then serves up ‘Grain Blanc’. An airy, skin-tingling exercise in timelessness charged with a hurricane chug, star-gazing arpeggio and a juicy sub bass that wouldn’t have gone amiss in a Digweed set at any point in the last 20 years. 

Finally we crash back into Nicolas’s dark tech thermal as ‘Libeccio’ whisks us north through the gloomiest of clouds where sonic shadows play tricks with our wits. As we reach a stripped back clearing to get our senses a lightning strike of synths whips up energy from nowhere… Only to disappear again. 

Three forward-thinking productions prepared for all forms of weather. The only problem is which one you’ll storm your floor with first. Rain checks are not advisable…

Beatport

Fug 224 #

Libeccio

Fug 224

Grain Blanc

co label owner @diversions-music
Back in 1989, on the scorching French Riviera, Nicolas Masseyeffʼs long affection for electronic music first began. After that first kiss, then the man spent 15 years in his hometown as a record dealer, before buying his own outlet, Limelight, and turning it into the most respected record store in the whole of Southern France.
Drawing inspiration from a wide sonic plane that includes minimalism, jazz, new wave, Detroit techno and Chicago house, itʼs producers like Steve Reich, John Cage, Carl Craig, UR, Basic Channel and Larry Heard that Masseyeff looks up to. Itʼs no surprise, then, that in 1998 Nico began experimenting on his own. Only in 2006 was he happy with the musical identity he had forged for himself, though, so only then did he release his first productions...
As such, French label Zebra 3 served up his Hostages EP before the Frenchman then released on John Henry Records (run by esteemed producer John ʻZoo Brazilʼ Andersson) for the first time. Since then he has returned to the label to release several tracks under the alias Vedrenn and has become a core part of the Plantage 13 crew that also includes the likes of Stephan Bodzin, Oliver Huntemann, Super Flu, Herzblut, Rekorder and Ideal.
Once producing full time and having sadly left the record store, the releases came thick and fast. ʻDevaʼʼs melody seduced Stephan Bodzin enough for him to put it in the spotlight courtesy of a release on his Herzblut Recordings (2008), then went on to release another trio of Masseyeff EPs, namely Asymetrik (2009), Modul8 (2009) and No More Time (2010).
2010 also saw Nico pair with long-time friend and much-hyped producer Oxia. Together they crafted ʻTrying Outʼ for the 5 year anniversary compilation of Marc Romboyʼs Systematic in July 2009, then ʻKeep the Drumsʼ for London label Tsuba in April 2010. So too have there been remixes for Stephan Bodzin and Marc Romboyʼs astronomic Luna project alongside plenty of other names from across the electronic world.
Most recently, though, is Masseyeffʼs full length project, The Motherland: itʼs an odyssey into the manʼs mind, featuring twists and turns, blissful sections and joie de vivre, but also melancholia and sorrow, just like in his life; just like in your life... Came out  on Herzblut in November 2011.
2012 was a year of remixes for Nicolas, for labels like Noir Music, Suara, Materials, Oswind and others…
this year was also the time for him to work in the background of some artists like Miss Kittin or Kavinsky to help them to built their live act for their albums tour…
After this few months break, the long time friend Oxia and Nicolas came back together in studio to deliver « You know » which was released on Noir Music for Summer 2013.
Nicolas and his longtime Limelight crew, launched a new kind of event called « Le Bal des Fous »  taking place on sunday afternoon in some unusual venues and dedicated to house music… 
French artist Nicolas Masseyeff has become synonymous with the label herzblut , and boy have we missed him. Having recently graced the likes of Suara, Selador, Noir and Mo’s Ferry with his music and lent his vast studio talents in the aid of others, Nicolas comes home with his latest work Vero.  
In 2015 all ready done some remixes especially for Kaiser Disco Label KD Music, and a new flowers coming out of his heart with an amazing studio collaboration with Miss Kittin called « June » which will be out on the wellknow berlin label Mobilee Mid of June…