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Music

Nguzunguzu's NA Unleashes His Most 'XTREME' Flute Samples

All my elves to the dancefloor!

You only need to look at the cover of NA from Nguzunguzu's new record, XTREME TREMBLE, for a vision of what's in store for your speakers. The artwork features a Second Life Superdome being wiped out by a Sandy-scale information tsunami and the track titles include keywords like "Xtreme," "Gasp," and "Storm." This immaculately produced record, released on Fade To Mind, shakes foundations like a 700-year storm fueled by unchecked technology. My landlord, safe to say, was not a fan.

This is dread rave music too slippery to be caught in a genre cage—fitting for a new world verging on the singularity. It leads off with "XTREME TREMBLE," a relentless tune with massive percussion that constantly shifts places with a nervous energy. Then it surfaces with "Flute Gasp," offering a chance to catch your breath in the eye of the hurricane, only to start hailing 808 triplets, rapidfire kicks, and tomblike echoes on "Storm B," which takes a while to build but hits full stride about halfway through.

To celebrate the release, we spoke with NA about his favorite flute music. Since he's not the only fan of synth flutes, he put together this quick mix of his top flute picks and told us a bit about each one. All my elves to the dancefloor!

KG - "Midnight (Flute_Riddm)"
Used to play this all the time. Classic.
DJ Quest - "Devils Bay"
Also classic. Andre Nickatina samples the same flutes in a track called "Bay Bridge." I've read it's a Reason preset sample!
Mr. Slash - "Practice Hours"
The message is, if you practice the flute for many hours, you can sound this good.
Normal Nada - "Ku Indi"
Nothing normal about this flute note.
Usher - "Appetite (Kingdom Edit)"
Flutes make me very emotional—true story.

You can stream the XTREME TREMBLE EP here:

Mike Steyels shoots dice with 20-sided die. - @iswayski