- Rough-and-ready techno from a core American underground dance music artist.
- Nik Dawson moved from California to Brooklyn just when Myrtle Avenue was becoming the centre of the New York underground. Dawson's DIY approach to dance music as Bookworms—blown-out drums, scuzzy melodies—fit in perfectly with the rise of labels like L.I.E.S. (a label, I should add, Dawson helped put on the map with his eternal "African Rhythms"). He quickly became a key figure in the Bossa Nova Civic Club cosmos, holding a residency at the fabled club, living with Huerco S., featuring in a buzzy VICE profile and putting out 2016's Xenophobe LP on BANK Records—a high watermark for that moment in American techno.
Since then, as the Brooklyn scene morphed into part of the global overground, Dawson has burrowed deeper into his studio. He's released a staggering amount of records, but in recent years has turned his back on labels, instead preferring to self-release music through Bandcamp. In 2023 alone he put out five records totalling over 60 tracks. Playing any of these tracks feels like getting cast into the middle of a live jam, as he works his hardware into a tizzy. Dawson's music remains improvisatory and punkish, but still completely danceable.
Take a song like "slice of life" from his first self-released LP of 2024, depth perceptions. It starts as slinky, pulsing techno before breaking down into halftime hip-hop and then, just when you think it's winding down, reassembling itself as a dubby bass tune. Imagine a live set in a dark, sweaty basement condensed into eight minutes. The rest of depth perceptions is equally complex and shapeshifting, working its way across Warp-style IDM, jagged techno and electro.
The best tracks combine Dawson's love for broken, blown-out sound design with his ear for catchy melody. "viz" is an unexpected earworm, with crunchy, spider-like drum programming making a bed for one of his catchiest chord sequences. There's brittle beauty in "exit at middle platform" as a synth arpeggio rears its head like a hint of blue on a grey, winter day.
The juxtaposition between beauty and roughness is even sharper when Dawson moves into IDM territory. There are a few tunes here that sound like updates of the Artificial Intelligence back catalogue, including some proper ambient beauties (like the undulating "gliss"), though Dawson likes his IDM more percussive. The short-circuiting "Gleek" is one for the AFX heads, while the corroded drum & bass of "nex" could have been in LTJ Bukem's 1995 Essential Mix.
Dawson's live approach to recording, though, does come with its drawbacks. The tracks often cut out without much warning, as if Dawson lost power mid-idea. You could imagine someone like Binh or DJ Masda reaching for the sluggish electro of "ofiveb"—the 808s are punchy, but the chords sound like they've been piped in from some Halloween horror film and then dissolved in a bath of lye. Just as the track gets going, it disappears, which might send the unsuspecting DJ into a tailspin. A few other tracks, on the other hand, go on for just a bit too long. I love the sinister slink of "vidual," but at over nine minutes, it could have been slimmed down about 50 percent.
These are minor issues though. depth perceptions, and the rest of Dawson's oeuvre, is testament to the fact that the original DIY spirit that animated the Brooklyn underground is alive and as inspired as ever.
Tracklist01. rusto
02. slice of life
03. exit at middle of platform
04. gliss
05. gleek
06. selected
07. ofiveb
08. vidual
09. viz
10. 200pairsbox
11. trigonometry
12. phonie
13. nex
14. ccents
15. ability