DJ Shadow Drops ‘Heavy’ ‘Nice Nightmares’ as Nite School Klik
DJ Shadow has revealed that he and studio wizard G Jones are the brains behind the Nite School Klik, a moniker that mysteriously posted music on Shadow’s Liquid Amber imprint before unveiling their true identities. For Shadow, Nite School Klik marks his first alias project since his mid-Nineties offshoot the Grave Robbers. So far, Shadow and G Jones have unveiled a pair of tracks: “Posse,” which dropped in April, and a new single titled “Nice Nightmares,” which you can stream and download for free below:
Nite School Klik define their music as “heavy, abstract and headsy, no real name/genre – but with a kind of dreamy/sci-fi feel to it,” and “Nice Nightmares” fits that description, seamlessly segueing from grimy ambient to speaker-rattling bass to 8-bit odysseys over the song’s six-minute run time.
“I’m trying to conceptualize my music in new ways, not necessarily trying to push the Shadow brand, but have the music be heard first without anyone trying to claim it,” Shadow said in a statement about hiding behind the pseudonym. “That’s why I didn’t want to come out at first and say who NSK are. My alias had tactical reasons 20 years ago, and NSK has tactical reasons now.”
“Shadow had the idea of doing it as a mystery on his label to get people hyped on the music before revealing who was behind it. Partially so it wouldn’t be people seeing it as just DJ Shadow and some young kid,” the 23-year-old Jones told Billboard. “I think it’s a good one because we could get the music out there, and kind of be stoked on it not just through the lens of ‘what’s Shadow doing now?’ and more like ‘what’s this new weird stuff?’ We’re trying to make something that sounds like cool, contemporary and heavy hitting bass music that’s between genres. Something a bit more experimental – songs as opposed to DJ tracks.”
In 2014, Shadow launched his Liquid Amber imprint, a digital label that has so far released music by Bleep Bloop and Ruckazoid.