| Little Nobody | |
|---|---|
Andrez Bergen |
|
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Andrew Bergen / Funk Gadget / Slam-Dunk Ninja |
| Origin | Melbourne, Victoria |
| Genres | Experimental, Electronic (IDM, Glitch, Ambient) Industrial, Hip-hop, Electro |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Associated acts | LN Elektronische Ensemble, DJ Fodder |
| Website | Little Nobody website |
Little Nobody is the electronic music production alias of Australian musician and writer Andrez Bergen.
Contents |
An expatriate Melburnian who currently resides in Tokyo, Japan, Bergen is also an author and photographer, as well as a music, movie and anime journalist for the Daily Yomiuri newspaper, and Tokyo correspondent for Anime Insider, Geek Monthly and Impact magazines.
In the past he has also written for Mixmag, ToyFare, Remix, Wax, The Age and Herald Sun newspapers, Vice Australia and Cyclic Defrost magazines, and he occasionally edits subtitles and narration for Japanese animation like Tokyo Marble Chocolate and The Drawer Hobs, and Mamoru Oshii's live-action Assault Girls (2009).
In 2011 Bergen published his debut novel called Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat, via American publisher Another Sky Press.
Bergen is a co-founder and until December 2010 was the ongoing manager of Melbourne/Tokyo label IF? Records, which was launched in 1995 and has since featured an array of Australian (and especially Melburnian) artists like Artificial, Blimp, Voiteck, Ben Mill, Isnod, Honeysmack, Josh Abrahams, Little Nobody, Soulenoid, Guyver 3, TR-Storm, Rhizo, Son Of Zev, DJ Hi-Shock, Sebastian Bayne, Enclave, Alkan, Koda, Kultrun, Bill Hunter, Nod, Zen Paradox and FSOM,[1] amidst a rotating international roster that has included Si Begg, DJ Warp, Dave Tarrida, James Ruskin, Justin Berkovi, Luke's Anger, Wyndell Long, Dasha Rush, E383, Tobias Schmidt, Jammin' Unit, DJ Wada, Khan Oral, Captain Funk, Jason Leach, Alone Together, Donk Boys, Biochip C, Toshiyuki Yasuda and Thomas P. Heckmann.
"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." [2]
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, Dick Drone, and the LN Elektronische Ensemble.
He currently lives in Tokyo with his wife, artist Yoko Umehara, and their daughter Cocoa. In 2011 he and his daughter were in a tall building in Tokyo when the Tōhoku earthquake struck; they were unhurt.[3]
Bergen has said he has been influenced in his own music by the 1970s industrial sounds 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 newspaper in 1999.[4]
In 1998, he released his first full-length Little Nobody album, titled Pop Tart.
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. Beat magazine.[5]
Little Nobody also appeared on the second compilation of Si Begg's cut-up beat Noodles Discotheque series in 2001.
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), The Slack Plague EP (2007), Robota EP (2010), and the Metropolis How? EP (2010), featuring James Ruskin and Justin Berkovi.
In 2008, Bergen released a remix compilation (Little Nobody Presents Slam-dunk Ninja: The Perspicacious Remix Selection), plus a new album (Eat Tatoo Dead Tiger), and since then has unleashed three more albums through Auricular in the USA (Deeppresso 2009, Hackneyed Record Crate 2010, and Convert to Mono 2011).
During 2010 Bergen made a return to the vinyl format for some releases. "Digital is glutted out,” he told James Coulson at Metropolis magazine in Japan.[6] “It’s a great medium to exercise lack of restraint and release experimental stuff since there are no overheads, but sales and attention are minimal. Digital is physically intangible, and CDs have gone the way of the dinosaur. DJing vinyl is something I can show my daughter when she grows up, and the analog sound is just a wee bit richer.”
In May 2011 he release the Little Nobody Commix remix compilation CD through Japanese label Fountain Music (featuring mixes by Mijk van Dijk, James Ruskin, Dave Angel, Shin Nishimura, Donk Boys, Si Begg, Patrick Pulsinger, DJ Wada, Captain Funk and Justin Robertson).
Little Nobody's music has been remixed by Sweden's Donk Boys, Britain's Si Begg (Mosquito), Luke's Anger, Justin Robertson, Dave Tarrida (Tresor), James Ruskin, Dave Angel, Tobias Schmidt (Tresor), E383, Steve Cobby from Fila Brazillia, Justin Berkovi and Jason Leach (Subhead), as well as by German, Dutch and Austrian producers Bas Mooy, Jammin' Unit, Mijk van Dijk, Biochip C and Patrick Pulsinger, and Americans AUX 88, Paul Birken, Blake Baxter, Wyndell Long and Steve Stoll, Australian producers Steve Law (Zen Paradox), Nicole Skeltys, Digital Primate, Bitch Shift, Dee Dee, Son Of Zev, DJ Hi-Shock, Koda, Craig McWhinney and Nick Littlemore from Pnau, and Japanese musicians Tatsuya Oe (Captain Funk), DJ Wada (Co-Fusion), DJ Warp (Elektrax), Alone Together (IF?), Magnet Toy (Trope), Funkarmor, Masaya Sasaki, Toshiyuki Yasuda (formerly from Fantastic Plastic Machine), Naotoxin, Gadget Cassette, Shin Nishimura and Yamaoka.
In return, he's had a hand at remixing Severed Heads, AUX 88, Wyndell Long, Dasha Rush, Dead Sound, Luke's Anger, Kid Calmdown, Slam-dunk Ninja, DJ Hi-Shock, Marcella Brassett, Dale Baldwin, Bitch Shift, Koda, Alkan, Son Of Zev, Abis and Toshiyuki Yasuda, and, with the LN Elektronische Ensemble, covered The Doors' Light My Fire for a live session at SBS Radio in Australia.
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 performed alongside Elenor Rayner (as Little Nobody vs E)[7] 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 Kittin, Heiko Laux and Mike Patton from Mr Bungle.
He also supported Coldcut during theirAustralian audio/visual tour in 1999.[8]
Little Nobody, and his Andrez turntablist alterego, has played at Australian clubs like Filter, Teriyaki Anarki Saki, Centriphugal, Frigid, Warm Up, Phreakin', Scissor*Paper*Rock, Zoetrope, Club Kooky, Revolver, Honkytonks and More Bass. In Japan, he played at the renowned Womb and Unit nightclubs as well as at Dommune, and in London at the now-defunct Moon Palace.