FEATURE:
Spotlight
PHOTO CREDIT: Will Reid
Nukuluk
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THERE is a very interesting group…
PHOTO CREDIT: Will Reid
who I want to direct people to. There is no doubt that there are few that sound like Nukuluk. A five-piece who take their members from various parts of the globe, their most recent E.P., SUPERGLUE, is a terrific release that people need to check out. I am going to come to a 2023 interview with the band. Before that, there are a couple of older chats that are important. I think that they give more depth to a very intriguing musical proposition. I want to start with Fred Perry and their question and answer with the amazing Nukuluk:
“Nukuluk are an experimental hip-hop collective from South London. They release their new EP 'Disaster Pop' on 17th November followed by a launch party at The Windmill, Brixton a few days later on 20th November 2021.
“Name, where are you from?
Nukuluk (Monika, Mateo, Syd, Olivia, Louis), from London/Plymouth/Paris.
Describe your style in three words?
Mo: Discreet, branding, earthtone.
Ma: Out of touch.
S: clunky gruff lost.
What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?
S: Goat (JP) at Oslo Hackney - such amazing ideas, tightest rhythms and a saxophone with a Coke bottle shoved down it. Sadly they aren’t on Spotify, so special mention to the legendary Das EFX who I somehow saw at the New Cross Inn.
Ma: Outkast at Bestival, big energy, real showmen.
O: GORILLAZ. It was just really good.
If you could be on the line up with any two artists in history?
Ma: Prince and Meshell Ndegeocello so I could learn a thing or two about playing my bass.
L&O: Definitely Up Doggy Dog and probably Radiohead.
S: Actress and Nearly God. Both sonic and emotional pioneers in what they do with music and an endless production inspiration.
Which subcultures have influenced you?
Mo: I was all hip-hop growing up, people looked like me and they were angry and rebellious and wanted more. Obviously, I realize now they weren’t telling my story, but I resonated with what they were saying.
S: I grew up around my parents’ punk and dub culture which was wicked - the values and the energy of it all. I think the approach to genre-mashing and collaborating is something that inspired me, as well as this idea of articulating a lot of truth through the songs.
L&O: Midnight Mass (seasonal), Soup Bible (also seasonal), Goldsmith’s Student Union, Londis, Group Therapy.
If you could spend an hour with anyone from history?
Ma: Andrzej Zulawski because I’ve fallen in love with his films recently and have many questions unanswered.
L: Dennis Hopper, I wanna see how horrible he really is.
O: Maya Deren is my favourite :)
Of all the venues you’ve been to or played, which is your favourite?
L: Royal Festival Hall is always fun, I like to dress up.
O: WORM, Rotterdam - Google the toilets.
S: Graham’s Arch near Ladbroke Grove station - an old wood workshop where I played my first gigs as a kid. Lots of smoke and hummus!
Your greatest unsung hero or heroine in music?
Mo: Francis Bebey. I grew up listening to his music, and love the mix of humour and sincerity in his writing. People in the UK tend to focus on his instrumental work because of the language barrier, and it annoys me to see very cool very serious DJs missing out on the light side of his music.
L: Stephen Malkmus - Melodically and lyrically my favourite artist, I was the perfect age when I got into his music and I still don’t understand a lot of the words to Pavement songs.
O: Paddy Steer - he builds all his synths and has a big fish head with a vocoder in it and it slaps.
S: Richard Dawson - obviously he’s got his fanbase, but I think he deserves more! I can’t see anyone’s lyrics that come close to how he depicts life in Britain. From touching upon this medieval generational trauma with his record 'Peasant' to the follow up '2020' about freelance graphic design work and Kurdish families getting bricks through their windows, his lyrics just embody the weird social nightmare of parts of life in Britain.
The first track you played on repeat?
Mo: 'Salomé' by Donny Elwood.
Ma: 'Boombastic' by Shaggy.
O: 'When I Come Around' by Green Day.
L: 'The Ketchup Song (Aserejé) - Spanglish Version' by Las Ketchup.
S: 'Lost In The Supermarket' by The Clash.
A song that defines the teenage you?
Mo: 'Suicidal Thoughts' by The Notorious B.I.G. I didn’t have any suicidal thoughts, I was just obsessed with the song.
Ma: 'Promises' by Fugazi. I remember it being very cathartic when I thought I was angry.
L: 'Femme Fatal' by The Velvet Underground, Nico.
O: 'Mote' by Sonic Youth but also just all of 'Goo'.
S: 'Untitled #8' by John Frusciante. My friend Anna showed me this record when we were kids and I’m pretty sure it ruined my life; proper gateway experimental music, beautiful guitar riffs you recognise from Red Hot Chili Peppers tunes surrounded by eerie tape delay and samples of laughter and conversation. I was a bit of a sad kid…”
I am going to move to another interview. This is from 2021. Even though it is a couple of years ago, we do get to capture this group who were near the start of their career. That excitement and buzz that was coming from certain corners. I still think there are so many people that do not know about them. CLASH spent some time with Nukuluk:
“It doesn’t make sense, does it? For a song to feel quiet, surely music is the opposite of quiet. But some moments in NUKULUK’s new EP 'Disaster Pop' feel delicate, gentle even. They nestle soundscapes to nest in between sporadic bursts of hip-hop power. Each song drips through each other. It collects in bodies then disperses. Even though the EP finishes on the song 'Rain', each track flows into each other like liquid. And it feels like all of the members drink from this liquid, and share it.
They are definitively a collective, with Louis playing drums alongside producing the drums, Mateo plays bass and makes the visuals to accompany the songs. Olivia plays the synth and sampler, adding vocals and producing. Syd does vocals, produces, plays guitar and sampler and makes videos, and Monika does vocals. Together they carve screeches into soundscapes, mangle field recordings of screams into sonic, claim them, turn them upside down and then power them up.
Some of their songs, like 'Feel So', feel like an awakening, or a realisation. Syd's voice laps with the waves of sonic that flow forth and back around them. Monika's voice cuts through the sonic like an arm through water, trying to swim. Followed by 'Nu Year', a song that flows and breaks, in a way that feels like floating over waves on a body of water, staring at the sky.
The synth sounds pauses and repeats like a glitch, unnatural movement, a suspension, feathered in the air. But if this EP is floating, 'Rain' drops it to the ground; a song that immediately strikes as nostalgic, studded with field recordings. This feels symbiotic, as pads of the member’s vocals pat like water joining the earth, a group, a ecosystem. A safe little world, NUKULUK are inviting us into a corner of themselves. And this is what NUKULUK is about really, inviting us in.
So, in this conversation Clash talks to Monika and Syd of NUKULUK about this process of creating as a collective, tempting disaster, and recycling and repurposing sounds, making something of what might be discarded…
NUKULUK seemed to pop out of nowhere with all of this finished stuff that's just so polished, so how did you form as a collective?
Monika: I had never stepped into a recording studio, I hadn't really written anything. But Syd had a lot of faith in me from the get go, even when I didn't have a lot of faith in myself and that I think is what really underscores the collective because I remember, and I don't think I can ever forget when the only two people really listening to the songs was me and Syd.
And then when Louie came, it was the first time there was an external voice that was actually gassed about the project. And he put a lot of care and affection and saying what he loves, that made a huge difference, that bond of the three of us just was very creative and helped us to finish the songs. When the whole collective formed, and we had made the songs, we were like, right, we have 12 songs, let's pick five, let's finish them and let's put them out. And then we pick the names together, and then we finish the songs. And there they are. And I think that's why they feel so finished. Because they're a real labour of love. Lots of layers of doubt, change, people coming in a resurgence of faith.
I want to know a bit more about the relationship of your lyrics to the music. How did they form? Was it you guys that wrote the lyrics? Or did you speak with each other about what you wanted the song to be?
Monika: Syd writes his magic on his own. And, I just find it extremely beautiful. 'Feel So' is the core example. I just listened to the melodies and what Syd was saying. I recognised him and I know what he's trying to say. And then I just felt like I had enough space to just go and be like, okay, what's my take on this emotion? When I feel this emotion, what do I want to say about it? And that's our why verses are so different. But they're very, very deeply connected.
Syd: You really have to believe in the world you're building or the environment you're addressing.
It was the start of the pandemic. I had loads of uncertainty. I could see that freelance artists were pretty low down the queue of who the government was gonna make any accommodations for. And I was really frightened. And then to have Monika, almost show the same pain, but from such alternate point of view. It was such an amazing form of communication. Sometimes my voice is kind of like a melancholic observer of a situation. And Monika's voice can then go into that situation and sort of be inside of it, and kind of confront it. So I'm sad boy far away. And he's some force driving through in the middle of it”.
I am going to end with an interview from DAZED. This is an interview from this year. There are not too many recent interviews. I hope that this changes as we look to next year. Regardless, every interview with Nukuluk is interesting and offers something fresh. There is no doubt that the quintet are going to be making some significant moves in 2024:
“It’s hard to label Nukuluk, but they like it that way. The South London collective – made up of vocalist Monika, bassist Mateo, vocalist and guitarist Syd, synth player Olivia, and drummer Louis – would prefer that you just enjoy the chaos. There’s plenty of it across their discography, with tracks like “Kick Snare” playing out as an abstract aural collage of the unfiltered human psyche, with outbursts of rage, confusion and loneliness. There are moments of intimacy and softness also, found in cyber-ballads that perfectly capture the band’s ability to execute a wide, dynamic range.
There is something distinctly robotic about Nukuluk’s sound, heard in the glitchy drums, contorted samples and cold soundscapes. Yet Monika’s emotionally charged vocals, paired with their white-hot live sets, show that there is still a very human band putting the pieces together. The band’s new EP SUPERGLUE marks their first extended release since 2021’s Disaster Pop, and sees them at their most experimental yet, mixing live instrumentals throughout alongside their established electronic sound.
The strength of the band comes from its separate and varied contributions. “We’ve been told a few times that we look like five people from totally different scenes that have all come together and are doing the same thing,” Olivia tells Dazed. Each member’s uniqueness is what makes the collective’s sound so eclectic, but also their obvious chemistry keeps things cohesive across their releases. Down below, they tell us more.
How would you describe the sonic landscape of your new EP?
Syd: We hadn’t really been playing live when we made the first EP. With this EP, we made it over the first year of us playing loads of shows and developing that live sound; there were no live drums on the last EP, for example. Our dynamics have shifted a lot more into that, our live show is quite punky sometimes and I think that comes through on the new record in a way that it really didn’t last time.
What is your approach to playing live? What do you want to translate to the audience when you play live?
Syd: It’s very theatrical, we go from being super intimate and vulnerable to super high energy.
Louis: That’s what makes [the band] so unique as well, you wouldn’t be able to make this type of music which we’re making with any other person. Everybody is so valued and so important, if we lost a member, it just wouldn’t translate at all. We’re playing with themes that people can relate to, something that people can have an emotional response to.
How would you describe your collective creative practice?
Mateo: We are an experimental group, and we don’t fit into a genre necessarily, and I don’t think we’re necessarily looking for a home either with that. We want to be able to push around and be in different scenes. One of the things for me that’s so exciting about this project is that we can metamorphose and become this different thing on the next record or in the next video.
Syd: We don’t have the resources to have a fancy studio, but we are quite adept technologically, so we can make that work in this weird, modern, digital, punky way.
Olivia: A lot of our production is quite spontaneous and we’re always finding horrible plugins to try and use.
Monika: There are also some really intentional elements. For me, with lyrics, I spend hours and days chewing over them, it‘s just my writing style. The music aspect, the rhythm and delivery over the beat get to be more spontaneous. Music is a lot like that: there are some things that you chew on for days and hours, you can be really intentional with them, and then maybe they happen in a flash on your first take.
What would be your funeral song?
Louis: If I were the first one to go, I’d like a four-piece Nukuluk performance.
Mateo: This George Clinton song called “Super Spirit” – it’s really upbeat.
Syd: I’d go with “Blank Expression” by The Specials because it’s just so fucking jolly.
Monika: I would go with “Soldier On” by Richard Hawley, which is one of my favourite songs ever. It’s really sad.
Olivia: Silence. I’d make it noise-cancelling in there.
What adjective would you least like to be described as?
Syd: Zany.
Olivia: Spunky.
Monika: Derivative.
Mateo: Scaly.
Louis: Reptilian.
If you could only listen to one musician for the rest of your life, who would it be?
Louis: Beach Boys.
Syd: Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Monika: Gil Scott-Heron”.
Having released the magnificent SUPERGLUE earlier this year, there are new eyes and ears on Nukuluk. I am new to them but, having read back at interviews and heard their older music, I am now going to see where they go next. I am excited to see a genuinely fresh and original force release such terrific music. Make sure you have them in your sights. They are primed for success…
AND worldwide recognition.
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