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Alex Clayton (AKA Asdasfr Bawd) and Nico Niquo’s brand of electronic music is the kind of thing you should show someone when they want to hear the kind of creative musical approach Melbourne is embracing right now. Basically, it’s a blend of slightly off-kilter sampling and visuals coupled with severely danceable beats. Another aspect of the Melbourne scene that his music exemplifies is the collaborative culture. Seriously, this city can feel so small when someone casually name drops a bunch of people you had no idea they knew. Nico Niquo’s remix of Asdasfr Bawd’s track ‘Nobody’ gave us the perfect opportunity to demonstrate this so we got the pair together to discuss what led to their recent musical alliance.

Check out Asdasfr Bawd’s ‘Nobody’ (Nico Niquo remix) in the gallery above.

Alex: Nico & I met through high school. We actually both played percussion together in the school’s wind ensemble. We shared a lot of similar interests and a good sense of humour and we became part of each other’s friendship groups and always stayed in contact from there on.

Nico: Alex and I met a long time ago- probably seven years ago or something whack like that? He was a few years below me at high school. It wasn’t until I had nearly finished school a few years after that we connected over a mutual appreciation of electronic and orchestral music.
As time went on and our tastes tended to take in more tangents from other music cultures, I think we stayed within similar musical worlds because of our group of friends. I think we all inform each other of things we discover, some going down really solidly. I think it’s this continual digging and sharing that has kept us together through all these years.

Alex: Nico just has this incredibly precise knack for what he wants in his music – and you can hear it. there is a fine detail in every sound, it’s like a machine in how coherent and exact it is. from his latest album on Orange Milk to the really early sounds he was producing back in high school, it’s one of the things that has always carried through.

Nico I think like most people, my process for remixing someone’s else laboriously crafted work is to try to tread softly and not impact on the intent or feel of it too much, but perhaps offering a different perspective. Just taking little fragments of a track, playing with how they feel on their own outside of the whole thing and trying to twist them into something new. Like a twisted mirror reflecting what is before it, without corrupting the essence [because] I really love the way Alex constructs his tracks. I think his arranging of sounds, both stacked on top of each other and as time goes by in the track is really cool – everything has a really well-defined and crucial role, but there’s still a playful energy that doesn’t take itself too seriously. That and his sense of humour.

More ACCLAIM premieres

Luen’s ‘Twerk-Out’ mixtape

Young Franco – Franco and Friends Vol. 1

Watch Catlips’ ‘Fade’ video