Nice Music Label
Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. Since 2016.
News → Spring
Thursday 25th September, 2025
Out now, NM’s mercurial label head Simon J Karis’ has released a new album of spoken/sung voice and blasted musique concrète - ‘Smashed Platitudes Avillion, Abbotsford, Adelaide/Heaps Of Sorrow’.
A new album from Simon J Karis of spoken and sung crypticisms and sentiments, collaged with overblown sounds from locales throughout the broken travelogues navigated in 2025.
This work might seem like quite a turn sonically to listeners perhaps more familiar with his dramatic synthesizer texture studies or indeed his crook fascination with techno rhythm diversions, reflected in last year's 'So Little Sorrow' and his collaboration with Actress (UK) 'THRASH' respectively. But also, he does whatever the hell he wants with every release really so yes, here's an album of Karis breaking things and talking and singing and travelling, pushed into the red.
(Cassette orders will begin shipping Tuesday 30th September, 2025)
LISTEN/STREAM
Tuesday 23rd September, 2025
Bassist/composer Joseph Franklin’s NM follow up, accompanied by synth/sound artist Ben Carey in a high resolution live exhange - released 15th October.
Damn, we are so back, here's another one for you.
Today we announce the return of bassist/composer Joseph Franklin to NM in this wildstyle heat exchange, actioned live in collaboration with synthesist, composer and improviser Ben Carey. Modestly, this one does what it says on the box, however ‘a thousand tiny mutinies live’ revises motifs and prompts from Franklin’s solo bass and extended technique LP for NM in 2024 with spectacular license, captured in stunning high resolution audio.
Listen to a 10 minute excerpt and preorder the limited edition cassette now, exclusively at Bandcamp until the full release on 15th October.
Mastered by Magnus Lindberg, design/photography by SJK.
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Wednesday 24th September, 2025
Released today, streaming now - the new single 'op.1 ādam' by Aarti Jadu on NM.
Flittering open with its arpeggiated petals and subsuming sub bass tones, ‘op.1 ādam’ immediately breathes through Jadu’s layered autotune vocal gliding across the stereo field. As the bass then relents in waves, a constant arp progresses in elation, while obtusely room mic’d flute drifts between in calmness and bass clarinet snakes into focus.
This release follows the live debut of this piece at Soft Centre last month as pictured, featuring Jadu's ensemble collaborators Adam Halliwell on flute, composer and bass clarinettist Aviva Endean and longtime AJ collaborator Emma Ovenden on synths.
Stream on your preferred platform now or purchase a digital download at nicemusiclabel.bandcamp.com
ALL LINKS/LISTEN
Monday 8th September, 2025
Aarti Jadu joins NM with new single ‘op.1 ādam’ following ensemble appearance at Soft Centre festival.
In conjunction with last week’s incendiary ensemble performance at Eora/Sydney’s acclaimed Soft Centre festival program alongside Klein, Team Rolfes, Robin, Fox, Ryoji Ikeda, Malibu and more, we’re pleased to announce Aarti Jadu will release her second full length ‘SICFWYLF’ album on NM in 2026.
This is marked by the release of ‘SICFWYLF’s first single later this month, entitled ‘op.1 ādam‘ and features contributions from Mildlife’s Adam Halliwell, Emma Ovenden and Aviva Endean.
READ MORE/LISTEN
Monday 8th September, 2025
Simon J Karis releases new album ‘Smashed Platitudes...’ and continues national gig run with Bonnie Mercer.
Last week, we announced this drastic left turn released 24th September, jammed up with writing, utterance and yes even some singing from NM label head Simon J Karis following some notable 2024 output, including collaborative projects with Actress (UK) and Andrew Chalk (UK).
Karis this time flings us the first documentation of his ongoing live performance project ‘Smashed Platitudes’, a rough-hewn collage of recordings on stages and in hotel rooms across Australia - a constant work in progress, auditing itself in real time in front of intimate audiences.
His creative process in these takes is indeed a collage approach in itself; a fractured and intuitive rearranging of concrète recordings captured in travelogue, some particularly jagged synthesis and lashings of noise interruptions to break up this constant jawing; because most notably, Karis’ voice is the constant thread throughout; we hear him speaking clearly and closely, sometimes wilfully obscured and surprisingly, often singing. His words are chosen immediately before us in the workspaces we’re let into, through automatic writing, both as pen on paper and incanted into the air.
See poster below for his visit to Hobart/Nipaluna this week with touring partner Bonnie Mercer, DM/email us for location details.
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Latest Releases
Joseph Franklin & Ben Carey ‘a thousand tiny mutinies live’
Cassette, Digital Download, no Spotify
NM064, released 15th October 2025
BUY STREAM
Bassist and composer Joseph Franklin returns to NM for a wildstyle heat exchange, actioned live in collaboration with synthesist, composer and improviser Ben Carey. Modestly, this one does what it says on the box, however ‘a thousand tiny mutinies live’ revises motifs and prompts from Franklin’s solo bass and extended technique LP for NM in 2024 with spectacular license, captured in stunning high resolution audio. Read more...
Simon J Karis ‘Smashed Platitudes Avillion, Abbotsford, Adelaide/Heaps Of Sorrow’
Cassette, Digital Download
NM063, released 25th September 2025
BUY STREAM
A drastic left turn from NM label head Simon J Karis, following some notable 2024 output. The manic jubilance of both last year’s ‘THRASH’ (his collaborative effort with UK experimental/club royalty Actress) and his hugely evocative, slightly foolish solo full length ‘So Little Sorrow’ (accompanied by a book of 50 watercolour paintings by legendary ambient musician and visual artist Andrew Chalk) commanded new ears and scratched heads further across the globe than Karis had enjoyed prior. Read more...
Aarti Jadu ‘op.1 ādam’
Digital only
NM074S, released 16th September 2025
BUY STREAM
Naarm/Melbourne-based composer, vocalist and multimedia artist officially joins NM with a new single, 'op.1 ādam' - streaming everywhere from mid-September.
Flittering open with its arpeggiated petals and subsuming sub bass tones, ‘op.1 ādam’ immediately breathes through Jadu’s layered autotune vocal gliding across the stereo field. As the bass then relents in waves, a constant arp progresses with tactile kineticism into playful squelching, while obtusely room mic’d flute and clarinet snake into focus. Read more...
Tina Stefanou ‘You Can’t See Speed’
LP/8pp Booklet, Digital Download, no streaming
NM066, released 10th July 2025
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You Can’t See Speed is a limited-edition vinyl accompanying the artist’s major solo exhibition at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Attending to the interconnected and multisensory experience of film beyond vision, You Can’t See Speed features vocal resonances and spoken descriptions written and recorded in collaboration with participants from Stefanou’s film works, alongside music composed by the artist. A cacophony of lived experience, oral storytelling, and vocality. Read more...
Celeste De Clario Davis ‘Resurrecting Light’ Book
NM067B, released 11th December 2024
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Through 70 pages of black-and-white photographs Naarm/Melbourne photographer presents a poetic interplay of abstracted archival material and original imagery, offering a nuanced exploration of overlooked compositions within photographic archives. Read more...
Nice Music is a Melbourne/Naarm based label, artist collective and events agency founded in 2016. NM focuses on offering a in impossibly varied field of artists from around Australia, often focusing on Melbourne/Naarm, with a cohesive platform of promotion and a considered aesthetic presentation to accompany this work.
With around 60 releases to date, Nice Music has released work from some of Australia's most heralded experimental and uncategorisable electronic and experimental practitioners, including Hantu, Fia Fiell, MP Hopkins, Alexander Garsden, Maria Moles, MY DISCO, Nina Buchanan, Mark Groves, Francis Plagne and Simon J Karis.
Occasional international artist releases have included Actress (UK), Andrew Chalk (UK), Guillaume Malaret (FR) and Alastair Galbraith (NZ).
The label began as an artist-dictated platform for under-represented un-categorisable music operating at the highest level ability and creativity, whilst finding a way to present it in as compelling a package as possible. NM was founded by Simon J Karis, a Naarm/Melbourne-based electronic composer and sound artist with a thirst for presenting the best marginal electronic and experimental music Australia’s underground has to offer.
Wholesale enquiries may be directed to simon@nicemusiclabel.com
Event enquiries may be directed to niceagencyaus@gmail.com
→ Selections from a decade of NM
Hantu ‘Zither Deluxe’
Cassette, Digital Download
NM056X, released 12th October 2023
Puzzlingly uncategorisable, 'Zither Deluxe' is nothing short of a post-minimalist masterpiece. A meticulous capture of the Hantu ensemble in peak form, recorded in two continuous takes over a single day. Influences from avant-garde and jazz forms pulse confidently through Hantu’s selected instrumentation, expertly subverting "world music" clichés in its simultaneous celebration and evasion of D'Cruz's “Asianness”...
Cloistral Sorrow ‘Cloistral Sorrow’
Cassette, Digital Download
NM050, released 24th May 2023
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Debut from the duo of James Rushford and Harriet Morgan - a hallowed set of home-made hymns and pastoral performances. Fans of Morgan's work as autobiographical extreme noise artist Military Position and Rushford's slew of compositional offerings across labels such as Shelter Press, and Black Truffle may be blindsided by this startling and at times moving leap into traditional song form; gesturing at synthwave, wry medieval pop and radio days romance. Poetic sensibility, solicitous vocals and undeniable hooks paint a world of wistful confusion, tears and memories to melt the most savage hearts...
Fia Fiell ‘All In The Same Room’
Cassette, LP, Digital Download
NM020, released 7th May 2018
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A meticulously crafted capsule of intimate melodic descriptions across a timeline of personal tumult, realisation and ultimately, growth; a playful yet guarded sense of wonder informs the tones, the sparse arrangement and the care taken with the mix. Swells and cycles in which time seems to slow often give way to sheer power throughout the arc of this release however, while the artist herself encourages the listener toward an immersive higher volume experience than so-called 'ambient' music usually demands...
Maria Moles ‘Opening’
LP, Digital Download
NM059, released 18th January 2020
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Debut release from multi-skilled percussionist, 'Opening' contains two elongated solo percussion-based pieces, stunningly recorded and brightly framing her renowned ability for restrained precision. Her patterns, feel and phrasing can't help but feel infinitely biological in their relentlessness and restlessness - compellingly, she merges her impressive training and playing experience with a knack for summoning requisite breathing room and mysterious unpredictability. A pure flow of creative incandescence and rhythmic lyricism...
MP Hopkins ‘Misting’
CD, Digital Download
NM048, 11th August 2023
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Surgically constructed and tempered, Hopkins’ gentle signature hisses emit from more varied beacons across the spectrum when compared to the mid-range adventures inward on previous outings. In a more expansive realm, Hopkins wildly scratches out his unmistakable intimacies, frittering a gleaming treasure of detail at us to absorb...
Joe Talia, Andrew Chalk/Hanna Chetwin/Francis Plagne ‘Split’
Cassette, Digital Download
NM002, 20th May 2016
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Talia is one of the most respected, able and creative players in Australia’s adventurous music community – ‘12th Exit’ is a mystifying and magical circular drift through a cumulus realm of tones and obscured familiarity. Its skewed environmental constructions are as comforting as they are confounding as the 12 minute piece shifts its way through a spectacularly sedated fug.
Chalk is an undisputed peerless figurehead of quiet music and pastoral drone. Plagne’s canon swings between songwriting and a variety of other approaches, including group improvisation, instrumental abstraction and domestic musique concrète. Chetwin is an experimental filmmaker based in Australia. This one off collaborative session took place at Chalk’s home in 2013, in which a beautifully raw and unadorned performance from all three players glides effortlessly through a subconscious micro-verse of delicately mixed acoustic interplay and blissfully submerged drones...
Simon J Karis ‘Tracce Non-Funzionale’
Cassette, Digital Download
NM047, released 31st October 2022
BUY
A 5 track release of weighty, microwaved techno tracks from NM label head SJK...
Nina Buchanan ‘Highly Emotional’
Cassette, Digital Download
NM021, 7th May 2018
BUY
Legendary barebones hardware approach to high resolution techno escapism from Naarm/Melbourne-based sound artist Nina Buchanan...
SEE FULL CATALOGUE...
Site design, photography, product design & 3D illustration by Simon J Karis
Built in cargo.site
CONTACT
general/orders/submissions: info@nicemusiclabel.combookings: niceagencyaus@gmail.com
design & photography, pricing & enquiries: simon@nicemusiclabel.com
Q: Can I send my demo or finished recording to NM for consideration?
A: For sure, we have a big listening pile and our releases are currently scheduled 18+ months in advance, but we get around to hearing everything we’re sent and really appreciate that you thought of us.
Q: Who do I talk to about booking or playing with NM artists?
A: That’d be Tim Stratton at Nice Agency Australia niceagencyaus@gmail.com
Q: Who do you use for manufacturing your physical products?
A: Monotype Pressing for CDs and tapes, Program Records for vinyl LPs