N.M.O. / DaF - Untitled

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  • N.M.O. is Morten J. Olsen and Rubén Patiño. Olsen is a Norwegian percussionist and a former drummer for MoHa!, while Patiño is a Spanish electronic artist affiliated with Evol, a veteran experimentalist who recently released on Diagonal. The pair have spent the last few years carving out a niche at the intersection of post-punk and electronics, releasing bristling but groovy jams with the forward motion of dance music and an experimental, playful sensibility. Olsen and Patiño introduce a new N.M.O. side project, DaF, on the B-side of their latest 12-inch. With every release, N.M.O. stands for something different (this time it's "Nassau Molasses Office"), so DaF probably won't mean "Deutsch Am Fuss" the next time it's used. By the sounds of things, Olsen and Patiño know D.A.F. usually refers to Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, the influential Neue Deutsche Welle post-punks who emerged in the late '70s. The homage is also implied in their music. But it's hard to hear why the B-side merited a new moniker. There are some differences in its sound (mostly, the addition of unintelligible vocal samples), but the energy is largely the same, even with the boosted rave factor and BPM. When there are shifts in the sound—like, for instance, the chromatic tics of the untitled A1—the energy stays steady. The tracks are so well realized that it sounds like N.M.O. could do this in their sleep. At the same time, it feels as though all their tracks fall under the same sonic umbrella.
  • Tracklist
      A1 N.M.O. - Untitled A2 N.M.O. - Untitled B1 DaF - Untitled B2 DaF - Untitled
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