Amie Street Artist Spotlight: Nigo

The first in what will hopefully be a number of artist and album spotlights I do for Amie Street. *** -> <-

When you first listen to Ape Sounds, Nigo’s genre-mashing release on British downtempo superlabel Mo’Wax, it’s hard not to make some mental connections to A Bathing Ape, Nigo’s similarly genre-mashing line of streetwear.

Just as he does with his clothing line, Nigo pulls musical influences from everywhere and throws them together with risky disregard for any sort of smooth segues. Fortunately for you, his risk pays off.

You probably wouldn’t expect Japanese punk to show up on an album shoehorned into the electronic genre, but there it is in ‘Jet Set’, the second to last song on the album. But even before you get there you’ll have heard a medley that includes a Japanese hip-hop track featuring a shamisen (‘Kung Fu Fightin’’) and a downtempo torch song driven by a house music diva (‘Too Much’).

For a special treat, any fans of UNKLE will instantly recognize which track was co-written by James Lavelle. (Hint: It’s ‘March Of The General’.)

If you’re only going to download a single song, choose from one of the above and go with the style that most fits your interest. Be warned, however, that this is one of those albums where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Pick and choose at your own discretion…