Nice Music Label
Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. Since 2016.
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News
→ Spring 2024
Friday 6th June, 2025Please join us at 3pm, Saturday 7th June at ACCA Melbourne for a special one off performance, to both conclude Stefanou's main exhibit run, whilst celebrating the announcement of this deluxe gatefold vinyl LP release of arresting audio taken from 'You Can't See Speed'.
Joining Stefanou for tomorrow's performance are vocalist and multiinstrumentalist Lisa Salvo, bassist and composer Joseph Franklin and horn ensemble Brass Commons, comprised of Callum G'Froerer, Tristan Rebien, Tristram Williams, Sarah Henderson and Sophie Spencer.
Register for free entry to this event via the ACCA Melbourne website to secure your entry.
Preview and preorder the album release here.
Today, we release our first ever straight up book release, no music - Celeste De Clario Davis’ stunning ‘Resurrecting Light’.
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.
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We’re currently offering 50% off Shelter Press + Black Truffle dead exclusively through our discogs store. Click through below for unmatched prices on mint LP titles;
Alvin Curran ‘Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri’ LP
Andrew Pekler & Giuseppe Ielasi ‘Palimpsests’ LP
Bergisch-Brandenburgisches Quartett ‘Live ‘82’ LP
Brunhild Ferrari & Christoph Heeman ‘Sturmische Ruhe’ LP
Claire Rousay ‘Everything Here Is Perfect Already’ LP
Crys Cole ‘Other Meetings’ LP
Ensemble Nist-Nah ‘Elders’ LP
Felicia Atkinson ‘The Flower And The Vessel’ 2LP
Felicia Atkinson & Jefre Cantu-Ledesma ‘Un Hiver En Pleine Ete’ LP
Francis Plagne ‘The Refrain’ LP $
James Rushford ‘The Lake From The Louvers’ LP
L’Ocelle Mare ‘Sans Chemin’ CD
Lucy Railton/Max Eilbacher ‘Forma/Metabolist Meter’ LP
Thomas Ankersmit ‘Homage To Dick Raaijmakers’ LP
Simon J Karis releases his 3rd full length ‘So Little Sorrow’ today, with a book of watercolours by legendary ambient musician Andrew Chalk. Click to read more from Francis Plagne...
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Latest Releases
2024 → 2023
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...
Simon J Karis ‘So Little Sorrow’
(with illustrations by Andrew Chalk)
CD + Book, Digital Download
NM059, released 15th November 2024
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An epic rollercoaster of high resolution noise and emotional heft, accompanied by a book of watercolour paintings by legendary ambient musician Andrew Chalk...
Impermanent Geophonic Dreamer ‘Érodé/Tunnahan’
Cassette, Digital Download
NM057, 10th October 2024
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Astonishing field recording and collage of Victoria’s most unhospitable coastline from southern France’s Guillaume Malaret, head of Le Cabanon Records...
HHOST ‘Ladder To Wave’
CD, Digital Download
NM053, 26th Septmeber 2024
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Completely bonkers two-step noise burst breakdown in high resolution audio from anonymous Australian producer...
Rita Revell ‘Folded Volume 33’
CD, Digital Download
NM055, release 31st July 2024
A moving diaristic electronic collage from mercurial Naarm/Melbourne producer following a series of self-releases...
Actress, Simon J Karis ‘THRASH’
Cassette, Digital Download
NM058, 25th July 2024
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Legendary UK producer teams up with NM label head for a rambunctious electro workout, meeting at the pair’s nexus of noise logic and club-adjacent form...
Absurd Cosmos Late Nite ‘Where The Streets Are Safe For The Little Guy’
Cassette, Digital Download
NM054, released 18th July 2024
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Mark Groves returns to NM with an often hilarious collection of codeined diatribes on modern cuisine and pointless cultural conjecture...
Alastair Galbraith ‘Lagash’
LP, Digital Download
NM060, released 23rd May 2024
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NZ Tape music idol and outsider songwriter presents a four track full length release on NM, with guests Chris Heazelwood (King Loser) and Jackson Harry (The Aesthetics)...
Bad Ambulance ‘Intel 95’
Cassette, Digital Download
NM051, released 22nd May 2024
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7 tracks of variegated juke complexities and dismantled electro/breaks concepts from Naarm/Melbourne producer Jack Palmer...
J. Campbell ‘Erosion Of Memory’
LP, Digital Download
NM061, released 17th April 2024
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Jason Campbell’s (aka Collector) profound innervision - a dramatic sandstorm through near-beatless landscapes, mapping intrinsic understandings of family, familiarity and firmament...
Joseph Franklin ‘a thousand tiny mutinies’
LP, Digital Download
NM049, released 5th March 2024
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Solo electric bass voyages in unhinged polyrhythmic expression and textural investigation...
LOU ‘Soundtrack’
LP, Digital Download
NM052, released 20th February 2024
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Sarah Hardiman (ex-Deaf Wish, Moon Rituals, Brick Head) takes huge leaps onward from the eternal glimpses of reduced rock washout on their debut, with a plaintive, intricate set of arrangements and unexpected instrumentation...
Match Fixer ‘Hits For The Bin’
CD, Digital Download
NM043, released 9th November 2024
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Andrew Cowie (of Angel Eyes, Glass) populates the glowing expanse of his sound world with restrained beat structures, cloaked in his signature drift and squelch... -
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
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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
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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
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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