Nntng – There Is A Place For Me [Digitally Released]
July’s album of the month is the fourth album from Nntng, There Is A Place For Me.
This idiosyncratic German producer first came to my attention with his first release on Lobster Theremin way back in 2014.
From blissful downtempo tracks to upbeat sonorous techno, Nntng’s productions have a distinctive sound that evokes wide open spaces, heightened emotional states and wide-eyed chattering euphoria.
Even when he’s doing an ambient track, it sounds like an ambient track that’s meant to be played in a warehouse at 3 am.
Wait… just please bear with me a second while I add “warehouse ambient” to my “silly genres I invented “list, I’m bound to get paid big money for inventing one of these…
…Ok, sorry about that, ready now…
Sofa Symphonies
This is not music to get up and dance to, nor is it music to try drift off to sleep to. Rather, this is an in-between-states album specifically catering to a broad spectrum of energy levels one encounters while slumped on a couch at six am.
It’s as relaxing or as melodically uplifting as you need to be, depending on your mindset, making it a perfect post-club album.
The opening track is called “Unlimited ()”, and features soft pads and ghostly pianos all served up on a slightly disjointed breakbeat platter. There’s also cheesy, ravey “oh yeah” vocals which sound like they shouldn’t work there yet somehow they do.
Infinity is a more up-tempo breakbeat track with searingly bright leads slicing through the mix like lasers, there’s echoes of rave euphoria here too, and throughout the album generally, standing by to rinse out the last of your residuals if needed.
Track three, Memories, turns the tempo right down to zero with soft ambience, the sounds of distant thunder, cool downfalls and tears in the rain.
A loud unexpected scream followed by a slow lumbering hiphop beat announces the arrival of track four, Mad World, which channels Marvin Gaye to ask, “What’s going on?”
It’s hallowed ground for me that Marvin Gaye album, but yet I can’t help nodding my head along to this one with a smirk of contentment. Once again one side of my brain is telling me it shouldn’t work while the other side already knows that it does.
Tyrot, track five, is, once again perfect hazy morning after music with a hiphop beat and lush, floating ambience.
Track six is called Wordless Mass.
Fun fact, in my first draft of this article I subconsciously wrote down “WordPress Mess”, before spotting my Freudian typo. In retrospect maybe that’d have been a better name for this blog and, quite possibly, also my autobiography.
So anyways, WordPress Mess features more soft rainfall while a dysfunctional answering machine plays on a loop and disjointed voices and Oriental percussion add cadence to the piece.
This one gives me strong cyberpunk anime vibes, with a sonic pallet very reminiscent of the soundtracks for Ghost In the Shell and Akira.
Stabilize takes on more of a dub feel. There’s plenty of ambient sounds here too, with cool, soft pads washing over and faint voices calling from the distance.
The imaginatively named “Untitled” has a nice shuffling beat and an upbeat melody, it’s quite cheesy to be fair but it’s also the perfect pre-sunset fodder for your local trendy chillout beach bar.
The final track is There Is A Place For Me. Reminds me of all those “lounge” we had in the early 2000s. It’s chilled, it’s cheery and it’s ideal for unwinding while you stretch out and fool yourself into thinking you might actually catch some sleep.
Cyberpunk Dreams
Having been to my fair share of fiendish after parties that even the mighty Harry Houdini would have had difficulty extricating himself from, I’ve witnessed manys a crashing point.
You know it when you see it, that precise moment where everyone starts to realise the party is now officially over and there’s no means of extraction until well after sunrise.
All that’s left to do is grit your teeth and ride it out.
These experiences helped me to fully appreciate the value of this album. It’s music for weary randoms and over-exuberant post-rave replicants, those who are about to crash, and those who are still slightly wired and still need something with a subdued beat and emotive melodies to vibe off.
This album can cater to both while providing a soothing blanket of sound guaranteed to wind things down.
So light yourself a smoke, commandeer yourself a corner of the couch and get yourself into a nice boomerang-shaped slump.
Allow the memories of the night before, the thundering bass, the flashing lasers and the jabbering nonsense to fade, as your thoughts dissolve, your eyelids grow heavy and your brain finally reboots – today is tomorrow, tomorrow is today, but the future’s not written yet, so right at this moment, just enjoy the music.