Little Nobody
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Little Nobody
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| Also known as | Andrew Bergen / Schlock Tactile / Slam-dunk Ninja | |
| Origin | Melbourne, Australia | |
| Genre(s) | Experimental, Electronic (IDM, Glitch, Ambient) Industrial, Hip-hop, Electro |
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| Years active | 1996 – present | |
| Associated acts | The LN Elektronische Ensemble, DJ Fodder, Atomic Autocrac vs. Admiral Anderision | |
| Website | Little Nobody's dodgy MySpace site | |
Little Nobody is the electronic music alias of Australian expatriate Andrez Bergen, formerly from Melbourne, who currently resides in Tokyo, Japan, and moonlights as a music, movie and anime journalist and photographer for the Daily Yomiuri newspaper, and Tokyo Bureau Chief for Anime Insider, Geek Monthly, de-VICE and Impact magazines, as well as having written for Mixmag, Toyfare, Remix] and Wax in the UK, and - back in Australia - The Age and Herald Sun newspapers, Vice Australia, Dark Angel, Juice, Oyster, Catalog, 3D World, Australian Style, Rave, TRM, Beat, Sauce, X-Press, and Cyclic Defrost magazines.
A graduate of Melbourne University, whose post-graduate thesis focused on industrial music in Britain in the 1970s, Bergen was senior writer, and eventually editor, of the electronic/dance music 'zine Zebra, in Inpress in Melbourne, from 1994 to 2000.
In the process, he's interviewed people as far afield as Famke Janssen (from the X-Men movies), Mamoru Oshii (of the Ghost in the Shell anime fame), Genesis P-Orridge (from Throbbing Gristle), Matt Black and Jonathan More from Coldcut, and Michael Arias (Tekkon Kinkreet).
He is also the author of long-running regular columns, such as Neural Imp in Inpress (7 years) and Tokyo Travelogue and Flash In Japan for Anime Insider (3 years).
Bergen ran the Cyberdada program on Melbourne's 3PBS-FM for 7 years, from 1994, and is the manager of long-running Melbourne/Tokyo label IF? Records, which was launched in 1995.
"I started IF? Records principally because I was receiving all these great demo tapes from local artists for my show on PBS," Bergen told journalist Terry Rance in Inpress magazine in 1997. "No-one here was putting them out, and rather than sit around griping about it, I thought I'd try and help them myself." [1]
In this role he organised the IF?-sponsored Zoetrope live electronic music showcase events from the mid-90s to 2001, at the Punters Club in Melbourne, with performances from people like Voiteck, Zen Paradox, Sub Bass Snarl, the LN Elektronische Ensemble, Josh Abrahams, Isnod, Marcella Brassett, Son Of Zev, TR-Storm, Blimp, Frontside, Soulenoid, Viridian, Honeysmack, Little Nobody, Half Yellow, Guyver 3, Q-Kontrol, the Sonic Voyagers, Bent Spoons, and Tee-Art.
Bergen produces his own music not only as Little Nobody, but as a member of other production outfits Schlock Tactile, DJ Fodder, Curvaceous Crustacean, Slam-dunk Ninja, Atomic Autocrac vs Admiral Anderision, and the LN Elektronische Ensemble.
He currently lives in Tokyo with his wife, artist Yoko Umehara, and daughter Cocoa.
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[edit] Little Nobody's studio sounds
Heavily influenced in his own music by the 1970s industrial sounds, tactics and ideology of Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire - "Since about 15 years ago, when I first heard their album Voice of America," he told journalist Trish Maunder in The Age in 1999 [2] - as much as by Marcel Duchamp and the quixotic Dadaist train of off-kilter thought and hilarity, Bergen added a vast array of movie references and samples, along with a string of musical sub-plots stretched between Desi Arnaz and Detroit's Underground Resistance.
"Dada, an art style that called itself anti-art, peaked way back in 1917 with Marcel Duchamp's display of a toilet urinal at a horrified exhibition. But if Andrez Bergen is to be believed, Dada is an integral component in the workings of the Japan-based IF? music junta 90 years later," wrote Jamie Ata in the pages of Melbourne's Beat magazine in 2007. In that same article, Bergen - being interviewed - said that "Dada was about throwing art and their respected trends on their head; it was focused on a sense of mirth, the cut-up 'found' art aesthetic, and innovation. We like to think that IF? pursues all these things." [3]
Thus, Bergen launched his solo project Little Nobody with one minute of silence on the Zeitgeist 2 compilation through IF? in 1996.
"Little Nobody's sound, apart from that poignant silence, drifts across the boundaries of techno, Chicago-based house, and the occasional spurt of drum 'n' bass," assessed writer Nina Wright in 1996 for Zebra magazine, in Inpress. [4]
In his early "live" gigs, Bergen set up a rack of faux equipment, with monikers like the TB-Bollocks and the MC Free-O-Free, and instead played off two basic household CD players - which often skipped beats - along with two non-pitch control turntables, a 1970s dictaphone, a toy ghetto-blaster, and a bright yellow learner driver's L-plate, and made freestyle use of an analogue valve tuner also sourced from the '70s.
In 1998, he unveiled his first full-length album per se, titled Pop Tart.
"If the pharmaceutical journeying of writer Hunter S. Thompson seems allied, somehow, to the rituals of club culture and its music," mused critic Chris Johnston for Rolling Stone, "then look up this grab-bag of sounds and postures by Little Nobody, aka Melbourne producer/DJ Andrez Bergen... A deluded, entertaining quest, in this case through the electronic music of the '90s. There's a bit of everything here, all fighting for control." [5]
Three years later, the next Little Nobody album Action Hero - which also contained real sounds - was one of the 4 final nominees for Best Album of the Year in 3D World's 2001 Australian Dance Music Awards, of which The Avalanches were the eventual winner.
That year, his remix EP of Bare, in collusion with vocalist Marcella Brassett, was also adjudged as Single of the Week in Melbourne's Beat magazine by reviewer Andrew Mast - despite the fact that most of the track was composed on a malfunctioning 1970s dictaphone.
"Little Nobody sits at the more experimental end of the Melbourne electronic scene, creating a wonderfully intelligent and artful work here," Mast ascribed. "Bare is an imaginative blend of early 20th century German cabaret, 1980s Australian electro (hear the influences, perhaps, of Ash Wednesday and Ollie Olsen's Orchestra Of Skin & Bone) and today's refreshingly global electronic scene. And amongst the many reinterpretations of the song are 8-Bit's gloriously retro Eurotronica mix (very Telex) and Kandyman's hypnotic and swaggering industro hop restructuring." [6]
Little Nobody also appeared on the second compilation of Si Begg's infamous cut-up beat Noodles Discotheque series in 2001.
"A cool funk compilation here," wrote reviewer Matt C. on the 11th Hour Technology website back in 2001. "Some classic moments, some very strange samples, very cool breaks and stuttered samples. Little Nobody hardens things up a bit with Alright Already, French style disco house with a tough edge, rounding off a nice cut for those needing something a little different…" [7]
He has since put out a series of vinyl releases in Japan such as the Depth Charge EP (2003), Eating the Heart of the Fishes (2005), and The Slack Plague EP (2007).
In 2008, Bergen has a remix compilation (Little Nobody Presents Slam-dunk Ninja: The Perspicacious Remix Selection), plus a new album, planned.
[edit] Remixes and Covers
Little Nobody's music has been remixed by a bunch of like-minded people, such as Britain's Si Begg (Mosquito), Jason Leach (Subhead), Tobias Schmidt (Tresor), and Steve Cobby from Fila Brazillia, Australian producers Steve Law (Zen Paradox) and Nick Littlemore from Pnau, and Japanese musicians Tatsuya Oe (Captain Funk), Magnet Toy, Funkarmor, Masaya Sasaki, Toshiyuki Yasuda (formerly from Fantastic Plastic Machine), Naotoxin and Yamaoka.
See the IF? Records remix release Reaction Hero (2001) for more information.
In turn, he's remixed Severed Heads, Kid Calmdown, Slam-dunk Ninja, Marcella Brassett and Toshiyuki Yasuda - and, with the LN Elektronische Ensemble, famously covered The Doors' Light My Fire for SBS Radio in Australia.
[edit] Tours, Live Performances and Gigs
Little Nobody has played live in Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, Beijing, London, Amsterdam, Detroit, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Windsor, and extensively around Australia - having performed at essential Australian rave parties like Every Picture Tells A Story, Hardware, Where The Wild Things Are, Freaky Loops, Earthcore, Zoetrope, War Of The Worlds, Dragonflight, Sunshine People, Omniglobe, Innovator, Technofest, TransAtlantic, Electric, and Be Strange, as well as at the Offshore Festival.
Along the way he has gigged alongside Luke Vibert, Derrick May, Squarepusher, Scanner, Jeff Mills, Eddie 'Flashin' Fowlkes, Chez Damier, Cari Lekebusch, Ben Sims, Ian Pooley, Pilote, Neotropic, Spearhead, Stacey Pullen, Adam Beyer, Miss Kitten, Heiko Laux, and Mike Patton from Mr Bungle..
He also supported Coldcut at perhaps their best ever Australian live audio/visual performances.
"Brave to grace the stage," suggested gig reviewer Lindy Tan after Coldcut's showing in Melbourne in April, 1999, "Little Nobody's mish-mash of drum 'n' bass, techno and lo-fi house was dark yet positive, brilliant stuff." [8]
At the Electronica Australian live electronic music showcase in 2000, Alice Dee wrote for Inpress that "Little Nobody was the highlight. Here was the real stuff, travelling through a fine journey of some experimental hip hoppy sounds and fun disco ditties, before Little Nobody showed us what electronic music in Melbourne is really about - banging it out in fine style. This one-man show proved he knows a lot more about electronic music than the kitsch L-plate he displayed let on. He may not be the most written about/appreciated/famous electro artist in this town, but he's certainly one of the best." [9]
Later in 2000, as part of another IF? Records tour of Sydney, 3D World journalist, Degrassi, made this report: "Little Nobody mounted an aural assault on us unsuspecting Sydneysiders, assisted by Isnod (who'd played earlier) on turntables. Armed with two regular CD players (no pitch control!), sampler, a dictaphone containing an interview he had done with Ken Ishii, as well as a multitude of other electronic devices, Little Nobody fucked with our minds mixing Black Sabbath into techno, and doing things to Barry White that would make the Mac Daddy sweat. Not your average set - and the crowd were loving it!" [10]
Little Nobody, and his Andrez turntablist alterego, has also played at vital Aussie clubs like Filter, Teriyaki Anarki Saki, Centriphugal, Frigid, Warm Up, Phreakin', Scissor*Paper*Rock, Zoetrope, Club Kooky, Revolver, Honkytonks, and More Bass.
In Japan, Little Nobody has played at the renowned Womb nightclub, and in London at the now-defunkt Moon Palace.
[edit] Little Nobody releases
- Solid Gold Collectibles, & Then Some EP (1997) So!! Muzik
- Pop Tartalbum (1998), IF? Records
- Action Hero album (2000), IF? Records
- Bare EP (2000), IF? Records
- Cocaine Speaking remixes (2000), IF? Records
- Reaction Hero remix album (2001), IF? Records
- Boastward Ho EP (2001), Fitja Records
- Pop Tart mixes (2002), IF? Records
- Depth Charge EP (2003), Fitja Records
- Eating The Heart Of The Fishes EP (2005), IF? Records
- Plus / Minus EP (2007), TTAK
- The Slack Plague EP (2007), IF? Records
- Game Over: Variations EP (2008), IF? Records
- Techelectric Tangents Vol. 1 EP (2008), IF? Records & Hypnotic Room
- Techelectric Tangents Vol. 2 EP (2008), IF? Records & Hypnotic Room
- Wayward Seafarers EP (2008), IF? Records & Hypnotic Room
[edit] As Schlock Tactile, the LN Elektronische Ensemble, and Slam-dunk Ninja
- Live, Sorted & Tauted (LN Elektronische Ensemble, 2001), IF? Records
- Mitanime Remixes EP (Schlock Tactile, 2003), IF? Records
- Ninja Daddy EP (Slam-dunk Ninja, 2007), IF? Records
 Little Nobody |
[edit] On compilations
- Zeitgeist 2 (1996), IF? Records
- Zeitgeist 3 (1997), IF? Records
- Sunblock (1998), Sunblock/MDS
- Dance Your Pants Off! (1998), Australian Dance Music Conference
- Dragonflight 99 (1999), Dragonflight
- Hemphouse (1999), Sense Recordings
- Beatscootin (1999), Groovescooter
- ZOO (2000), IF? Records
- Every Picture Tells A Story, Vol. 3 (2000), MUD
- Noodles Discotheque, Vol. 2 (2001), Noodles (UK)
- 909001 EP (2001), Nine09
- Esoteric Psikology (2001), Nine09
- Kiss FM: Sounds of Australia (2001), Shock
- Beatworkz, Vol. 2 (2001), Organarchy
- Exasperation Flicka (2003), Fitja Records
- Yel.Blu.Gre. (2003), Fitja Records
- Minus / Plus: Initials EP (2005), IF? Records
- Jungaru Teitai (2005), TTAK
- Dartness + Height (2005), TTAK
- Serapionne (2006), TTAK
- Slam-dunk Ninja: The Perspicacious Remix Selection (2008), IF? Records
- Z-13 (2008), IF? Records
[edit] Reviews
"It's full of fascinating manic spirit, a refusal to simply settle down and be normal, which is, of course, brilliant. The jacking, snarly house tracks are wild. 'Apocoloppola', a lysergic, obsessive collage of film dialogue and weirdness, is stunning. And the hip hop tracks are unforgettable." Chris Johnston in The Age newspaper in 2001, writing about Action Hero. [11]
"Sample-heavy Australian record that if we were being terribly lazy we might describe as 'a bit like a more left field Avalanches, only better'. Generally quite old skool industrial in sound, this periodically throws some incongruous acid/filter house party shapes, which is a bit like Gordon Brown breaking off from talking about monetary policy to dance the can-can. And we all know how great that is." Duncan Bell, reviewing the same album for Muzik magazine in the UK, in 2001. [12]
"A playful sensibility prevails in the music - the 15 tracks here oscillating between wall-of-sound big beat ('Nobody Plays Guitar') and an abrasive minimalism ('Track 28') reminiscent of Autechre, between dubby ambience and classic acid house. This sonic catholicism can occasionally prove distracting but, in Bergen's defence, he takes a rough-hewn approach to the collision (and collusion) of sounds that prevents this collection from lapsing into the merely tasteful or clever." Shane Donaldson, reviewing the album for The Weekend Australian newspaper, in 2001. [13]
"Bergen has long been a purveyor of local experimental music, without the usual yawns and ambivalence that is the aural equivalent of watching paint fry," wrote Mikey Cahill in Zebra, Inpress, in 2007. [14]
"This is music made with love," suggested reviewer Ben Shepherd, for Inpress, in 1999 when critiquing the re-release of Solid Gold Collectibles. "Music made by someone who absolutely adores music. Music that has little or nothing to do with the perfect beat-mix. A collection of songs that remind you of lazy Saturday nights in front of the turntable with a bag full of records, a few chilled beverages, and some of your best friends, kicking back and listening to some of the sounds that have made your week that little bit more enjoyable." [15]
[edit] References
- ^ Hypothetically Speaking..., Terry Rance. Zebra, Inpress, June 11, 1997.
- ^ Culture Club Profile, Trish Maunder. The Age, April 2, 1999.
- ^ What IF?, Jamie Ata. Beat, February 7, 2007.
- ^ Nobody's Driving, Nina Wright. Inpress, July 17, 1996.
- ^ Pop Tart review, Chris Johnston. Rolling Stone, #55, January, 1999.
- ^ Singles Reviews, Andrew Mast. Beat, 2001.
- ^ Noodles Discotheque Vol. 2 Review, Matt C. 11th Hour Technology, 2001.
- ^ Coldcut' gig review', Lindy Tan. Beat, April 7, 1999.
- ^ Electronica gig review, Alice Dee. Zebra in Inpress, January 26, 2000.
- ^ IF? Records Tour @ Scissor*Paper*Rock gig review, Degrassi. 3D World, October 30, 2000.
- ^ Action Hero Review, Chris Johnston. The Age, 2001.
- ^ Action Hero Review, Duncan Bell. Muzik, 2001.
- ^ Action Hero Review, Shane Donaldson. The Weekend Australian, 2001.
- ^ Nobody's Back, Mikey Cahill. Inpress, February 7, 2007.
- ^ Solid Gold Collectibles review, Ben Shepherd. Zebra in Inpress, October 27, 1999.
