Music Review – Noxoreos’ ‘Nebula’

In this review, we shine our spotlight onto Noxoroes, an independent producer who has released several singles of the course of the past year. His online presence is somewhat lacking – We don’t know his name, his influences, or in actuality, anything about him at all. We do, however, have ‘Nebula,’ a single he dropped less than two weeks ago. So, let’s dig into what we can discern of this new persona on the scene.

‘Nebula’ is an effort that was crafted with the standard kit most independent EDM producers are using nowadays – Ableton Live, Kontakt, and several other pieces of hardware. To Noxoreos credit, he does go beyond that typical virtual digital audio workstation set-up. He’s also utilizing some physical synthesizers, including the widely acclaimed Novation UltraNova. (An excellent modeling synth I have some personal experience with.) As a result of this culmination of hardware and software, ‘Nebula’ is a rather concrete experience that stands powerfully on its own.

‘Nebula’ is one of those tunes that draws heavily on electronica and techno influence.

This is the kind of song you’d hear as the soundtrack to an eight-bit video game or ‘The Minority Report.’ I appreciate that Noxoreos doesn’t necessarily abide within the stereotype-filled landscape of most indie EDM producers. More often than not, these endeavors feel like painful, headache-inducing diatribes on your psyche. ‘Nebula’ is welcoming and mostly soft-spoken, never quite exploding or overpowering the listener.

‘Nebula’ also feels like a very accessible piece. If you’re not a fan of EDM or electronic music, ‘Nebula’ may be a nice entryway into those genres. It’s welcoming, has a definitive beat and melody, and is very sharply produced. Noxoreos puts all of those aforementioned tools to good use and ‘Nebula’ is a slick, inviting experience as a result.

Noxoreos needs to a much, much better job of establishing himself online. His Facebook and Twitter are dead and none of the profiles are interconnected. This is a wonderful little indie EDM piece, one that could prove as a strong entryway into some even cooler things. Noxoreos just has to open up the door himself and make himself known. The internet is a tool for artists like this, and the music is solid here, but the tool isn’t being taken advantage of.

By Brett Stewart

I’m a professional writer and editor, a journalism major, and I have extensive experience in musical review. I worked for two years as the Editor & Chief of an arts magazine, Strike Magazine, where I worked closely with writers and musicians. Through this, I was able to interact with dozens of acts including Heart, Holly Williams, Robert Cray, John Hiatt, and more. The magazine printed thousands of issues and was even recognized by Rolling Stone’s founder, Jann Wenner.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW:

Noxoreos: After I released my second track on SoundCloud I tweeted it and, even though I don’t have that many followers, Exposed Vocals followed me and sent me a request for an interview. So here I am.

Noxoreos: I was born in a german village in Kazakhstan and lived there for a short time in my childhood and also some time in Russia as well. I was five years old when me and my parents moved to Germany. I always loved to be creative and build stuff with electronics and later on I was also into computer gaming. One time I started playing “Music” for the PlayStation and I liked it so much, that making music became a new hobby. Although I wanted to create an own game at that time, I still had to learn everything that was required for it. Eventually I developed my own little game when I was 17 and later became a software developer. But music production is still my greatest hobby and so I built a music studio in my apartment a few years later to have some fun with music production in my spare time.

Noxoreos: Well, when I decided to put my tracks online, I wanted to have something unique, short and fairly easy to pronounce. So I was thinking of a name for a long time. I wrote down every idea and did a small ranking list, while asking friends and my sisters, what they thought is best. So “Noxoreos” it was! When I created a logo, people tended to read “no oreos” (and still do), which is funny to me, so I stick with that.

Noxoreos: Sharing music online is a great way to get an opinion of what people think of my work. I give my music away for free, because I can’t see people buying music, of which they don’t even know the artist who created it. I can’t imagine a world where you sell music and at the same time get as much listeners as possible, without investing any money into it.

Noxoreos: I’d say, it depends on the kind of music you’re doing. But getting it out there, and playing it to as much listeners as possible, is the key to success. Making good music probably makes things much easier. That’s what I try to do and we’ll see if it’s good enough.

Noxoreos: I didn’t perform live, yet. If I did, I would just continue playing. Even the best performers make mistakes and they still keep going. Easy to say for someone, who hasn’t ever performed live, right? 🙂

Noxoreos: I don’t tour, yet. Maybe someday.

Noxoreos: I usually start by hearing through my giant library of sounds, too much If you ask me. Or by creating a patch on some hardware or software synthesizer. When I hear a sound that I really like, it inspires me and I try out a few melodies and eventually find something that sounds awesome to me. That’s the point when I record it into Ableton Live and change a few things afterwards in there. When I get stuck I try out more sounds a few days later, and when I find new inspiration, it usually doesn’t stop flowing until I reach the desired song length. I do drums in the middle of the process, and build the beat around my melodies. I do a lot of mixing and sound design in the meantime. I do my final mix and master on my own, because I think that’s a great way of learning new techniques, and because I like to be involved in each step on the way.

Noxoreos: I post my music on SoundCloud, Splice, bandcamp, ReverbNation, dreammy music-cloud, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Since my artist name is so unique you can find me on any of these pages when searching for “Noxoreos”. Some time later I’m going to build a website running under www.noxoreos.com and www.noxoreos.net but until then, there is http://presskit.to/noxoreos. There are no releases on music service providers like Spotify, iTunes or Google Play, yet. But I’m planning on releasing my tracks there as well.

Noxoreos: Maybe not on my mp3 player, but when I was young I listened to nearly every song from the Pet Shop Boys. I still like their songs, although I’m moving to a different direction nowadays.

Noxoreos: I’d build a new house in a quiet location and build a new, much bigger studio into a dedicated room. Maybe get a sports car additionally, if there’s some money left, since there is no specific speed limit on the Autobahn in Germany and I like driving fast :D.

Noxoreos: I’m running Ableton Live 9.5 with Push (first edition) and Novation’s UltraNova and BassStation II along with an Impulse 61, which I really enjoy playing on. I’m planning on upgrading to a Kontrol S88 from Native Instruments, since I’m also running Komplete 9 Ultimate. I didn’t learn to play the piano or keyboard from a teacher, but that doesn’t stop me from trying to learn it anyway.

Noxoreos: I do my research online and use Facebook, Twitter and try to get my music heard by friends and colleagues. I take every opportunity, that I can get without investing money. But for a start I think investing a little to be getting known, might be worth it – at least I’m going to try it out and see what happens.

Noxoreos: I’d really like to perform with Verena von Strenge, one of the the lead singers of dune back in 1995, because she and her band has a great impact on how my music sounds like today, and because I think she is an awesome dance music singer. I would perform anywhere, if I had the chance to.

Noxoreos: I’m thinking of reproducing some of my early tracks in a real DAW, so they become worthy of being released online.

Noxoreos: I think I would do graphics design or build electronics stuff in my spare time, since being creative is the only thing I’m interested in, maybe much more computer gaming as well.

Noxoreos: When I went out shopping with my father as a kid, I saw an MC with a picture of men with helmets and yellow suits on it, and I thought it looked like fun. So my father bought it for me. It was an album of the Pet Shop Boys featuring “Go West” and a few other songs. I was listening to it all day, even though I didn’t know anything about the band before.

Noxoreos: I’m working almost full time as software developer and product owner in a software company, and I study computer science at the same time as well. I’m not always working on new tracks after work, but when I do, I usually I find myself playing with software instruments and my hardware synths until late into the night, so I can barely walk to get into bed in order to get some sleep for work the next day, like a zombie – I’m glad I don’t need to start off working as early as most people do.

Noxoreos: I’m motivated to produce much more music in 2016, so stay tuned for that!