Athens-based Nikitas GRS has been a long time staple of the Greek scene. Operating in a grey area between noise, techno, psychedelia and beyond, his tracks are heavy, cerebral and hard to pin down. His latest output comes on renown Athenian imprint Pi Electronics and it's a split vinyl with Spanish producer Hurtado. Despite their distinct approaches, Hurtado's industrial-leaning broken beat funk and Nikitas Grs' psychedelia-infused noise techno converge through a shared aesthetic of textured sound design, raw energy and dark atmospheres.
Ahead of the release we asked Nikitas some questions about the tracks, history and beyond as well as premiering his track Pollinator 5000.
The Brvtalist: Both of your tracks on PI Electronics’ new EP, Split#5—“Susanoo (Live Version)” and “Anoriotos”—have a very physical, dense, and somewhat aggressive sound. Can you give us a little insight into the production process? What equipment, instruments, effects, or processing techniques were key to achieving that sound? And how differently did you approach the two tracks?
Nikitas GRS: Your description is pretty close to the result that came out. Essentially, what you hear are my influences, filtered through my own aesthetic and the way I perceive sound. I don’t have a specific workflow or a set way of working. I like to let the process take shape depending on what I want to express each time. I use both analog and digital media, often in combination, without worrying so much about the tool itself as about what it can offer me at that particular moment. Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter which medium you use; what matters is making it work.
TB: Your music brings together quite a few different musical influences—techno, noise, psychedelia, broken beats, and industrial elements. What framework do you use when you’re making music or putting together a DJ set? Do you think in terms of musical genres, texture, or specific dancefloors you’ve experienced? Or are all these categories something that only come after the actual creative process?
NGRS: My approach to music production and DJ sets is quite different. In production, there isn’t always a specific goal. It might start with a jam session, a sound, a track I heard, or even an experience that sparked the need to imagine and create. When it comes to a DJ set, I’d say I operate a bit more compulsively. There, I have a more specific vision of what I want to do and how I want the set to unfold, which can be seen as a limiting factor.
TB: There’s a big difference between making a track to listen to at home and making something that has to work in a club at 4 a.m. When you produce music, how much do you think about the venue, the sound system, the volume, the crowd, and the dance floor’s reaction? And how much do you consciously try to ignore those factors?
NGRS: There’s a big difference. When you’re creating something for the dance floor, you can’t help but think about the venue, the sound system, and the volume. What you need to know well is the room in which you’re producing—you need to know its weaknesses and understand how they affect what you actually hear. So, over time and with practice, you gain more confidence in how the track will probably sound in a club.
TB: You’ve performed alongside DJs and artists from quite different corners of the electronic music scene. What makes two seemingly incompatible tracks or genres work together in the same space? Does a DJ set ultimately need to have aesthetic coherence, or are there ways in which the clash of different sounds can create interest?
NGRS: I think the genre gives you a framework, especially when we’re talking about a specific party and a specific audience. That doesn’t mean you have to blindly follow some genre rules. There’s an aesthetic and a vibe you want to keep in mind. You can play with different sounds, create contrasts, and test theboundaries of the genre. You just want all of this to have a sense of continuity so that the set doesn’t lose its cohesion and flow.
TB: Is there a point where the sound becomes so dense, distorted, or chaotic that it ceases to be dance music? Or is the dance floor precisely the space where you can test those limits? And what limits, ultimately, are we testing with an audience in a way they can follow?
NGRS: This really depends on one’s experience and instinct. By instinct I mean realizing when a sound (or a track) that seems completely out of place on a dance-floor in a given moment, could still very much work. Then, to know how to bring it into the set without having it sound out of place is the technique an experienced musician/dj brings. I think when these two elements come together, you can do things that under other circumstances wouldn’t work.
Split#5 is out September 25th. Get it at: https://pielectronics.bandcamp.com/album/split-5
Interview edited by: Leandros Kyriakopoulos