Black Artist Database co-founder NIKS takes us on a journey through intergalactic home and techno.
DJ, teacher and neighborhood leader NIKS’ cross-disciplinary work hasactually drawn on the Black imaginative experience from a young age. In the early 2000s she enjoyed her dad play at the Glastonbury Festival, and her sibling, who was included in London’s garage and home scene shared tapes and CDs with her. When she was studying for a Sociology degree at the University of Bath, specialising in the experiences of Black ladies in academiccommunity, she took up DJing, influenced by the approaches of Mr G. and Kerri Chandler to establish a design that produces minutes of intimate dancefloor connection.
In 2020, as the pandemic exposed racial oppressions throughout the world, NIKS seen as Bandcamp Friday used a lifeline to independent artists and started work on a task that would muchbetter aid Black artists advantage from it. Alongside 5 buddies, NIKS released Black Bandcamp, a database to aid music fans search for and assistance Black manufacturers on the platform. This resource was essential in redressing the balance for underground Black artists and has consideringthat changed into Black Artist Database, a globally-recognised platform that lists Black creatives, reporters, equity efforts and Black-led tasks alongwith labels, manufacturers and bands.
Over the past coupleof years, NIKS hasactually endedupbeing a essential component in the London scene and beyond, curating a series for Mixcloud and holding down residencies on Noods Radio and more justrecently Rinse FM, where she signsupwith the dots inbetween home and techno past and present. NIKS’ Fact Mix is a recording of her paying at London’s Waterworks Festival in 2021, where she warmed up the HiHat campingtent and went down “a sonically fluid, intergalactic and area intrusion bleep path”.
Follow NIKS on Instagram and SoundCloud. Visit the Black Artist Database site on follow the task on Instagram.
Waterworks Festival 2022 takes location on 17 September at Gunnersbury Park in west London. Find info on lineup and tickets here.
Tracklist:
DJ Chupacabra – ‘Rockstar’
Ronan – ‘Life Web’
HearThuG – ‘Planet Rhythm X’
DJ Chupacabra – ‘Grimer’
OKRA – ‘Phase’ (Nicolás Duque’s Down to Earth Mix)
Ronan – ‘Abrazale’
Oliver Moon – ‘In