Nucleus and his esoteric drum and bass mixes

A selection of the best of ten esoteric mixes by Dave Sims, who is best known for his collaboration with Dev Paradox. Dave and Dev had already worked together at Reinforced Records; in the noughties they recorded a joint album Esoteric Funk there. When the label went on hiatus, Nucleus and Paradox founded their own label, Esoteric Music, and have stuck together ever since. (They call themselves vinyl junkies, otherwise why create a label?) Unlike Dev Paradox, who isn’t so much a DJ as he is a musician, Dave Nucleus makes pure mixes: not a word on the air is a bonus to the excellent mixing. He has been DJing at hip hop parties since the 80s and all the scratches you can hear in the releases are his doing :-)

It’s rare that the music that Dave plays in esoteric mixes is a wall of sound and an avalanche of breaks. No, Nucleus mainly chooses a stealthy rhythm, complemented by anxious expectation—for press releases, where such sophisticated formulations are held in high esteem, I would choose such words. Let’s listen ↓