Location: Los Angeles
Est: 2019
Potted History: Nomark is latest string to the Amon Tobin bow. Leaving Ninja Tune after some two decades, the audio adventurer decided to take matters into his own hands. “I’ve got nothing but good things to say about Ninja,” says Amon, “but I found I was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with trying to cover too much ground in any one piece of music, so the antidote was to make aliases to split things up.” As a result, his output was coming too thick and fast for the release schedule of a record label. Setting up his own seemed the solution.
“There were a series of conversations about the idea,” says label manager, James Clayton, “and then Amon turned round one day and announced that he’d set up the label and we were all going to help him. Which seemed fair enough”.
Mission Statement: “Sound for sound,” says Amon, underscoring the #nocontent sentiment that propagates music’s inherent value. He’s also gathered a crack team to help run things – John Jacobus (”web wizard, music freak and all round good egg”), Dave Jackson (”label gamer and social media educator”), Joe Chapman (”he’s like a rod that connects Amon to the ground. Without him, he would float off into space entirely”) and aforementioned label manager James, who Amon refers to as his “Salad Co-ordinator”. Best not to ask.
Key artists & releases: Initially, the label will be an outlet for Amon Tobin, Two Fingers and his latest nom de plume, Only Child Tyrant. Released in May, Nomark’s debut long-player was ‘Fear In A Handful Of Dust’, the first Amon Tobin album in eight years. “It was both exciting and daunting,” he says, “but it seems to have been well-received and reached Number One on the iTunes electronic charts in the US, which was nice.”
There’s a new Two Fingers album due in the autumn, while the Only Child Tyrant album (reviewed, left) saw a vinyl campaign via Bandcamp fully funded in two hours flat. On top of all that, there are various remixes and collaborations in the pipeline along with releases from Figueroa, Paperboy and Stone Giants.
Future Plans: Release-wise, the next outing will be ‘Long Stories’, the second Amon Tobin album this year, followed swiftly by the Two Fingers album, ‘You Ain’t Down’. There’s also more tracks on the cards from the ongoing collaboration between Two Fingers and Ivy Lab, which saw a single released back in June. A subscription service is planned for the label ”sometime very soon”. Keep an eye on the website for details of that. “We have lots of plans,” adds Amon, “sometimes they get mixed up with flights of fancy, but that’s OK.”
Any other business? “The main thing we’ve learned,” says Amon, “is to be flexible; to listen to the advice we are given and to filter which of it will work for us, and then to try it. Experiment a little.”
For more, visit nomark.net
