After releasing on Atomnation's Unfold Vol. 2 in summer, Berlin-based Italian NOCUI returns with more rich and uplifting grooves on his new Entrain EP.
Leonardo Di Fiore (NOCUI's real name) is a Rome-born composer and a classically trained pianist who brings a performative approach to how he makes music. An early love of jazz also permeates his work and he now considers himself a "studio and sound design obsessive." That shows in the meticulously crafted, always fresh music he makes on his go-to drum machine, the Jomox Alpha Base. NOCUI is also adept at speaking through other key bits of gear such as the Roland SH101, Acidlab 303, DSI Prophet 6, and Haken Continuum Fingerboard - machines that lend his music its signature sound and have taken him to labels like Traum and Wildfire.
NOCUI's lush piano house tune 'Never Before' opened up the Unfold compilation and kicks off this new EP in classy, feel-good fashion. 'Basic' then brings lush cosmic synths and bubbly drums, soul-drenched vocal samples and uplifting energy. The brilliant 'Nature Of Rhythm' layers old-school piano chords with squelchy acid lines and stripped-back drums to make for something superbly emotive and stylish. 'Sunlight' is another track for celebration with its deeply buried but funky bass and carefree chord progressions, and 'Fight For A Better Day' is a passionate house track with real elegance in its movement. 'KO' closes out with a brilliantly low slung, US garage-tinged groove, more deft acid and cute synth work brimming with colour.
Says the artist, "The idea behind this EP was to create an uplifting collection of tracks merging traditional dance music elements with modern arrangements and influences. Done in the midst of COVID, and my first such set of works, it aims at bringing a wave of intelligent optimism to the dance music world. I was simply tired of pessimism and its pernicious nature."
NOCUI's Entrain EP is a classy and feel-good house EP that cannot fail to warm you to the core.