PRESS german 
Press Echo - Selection
Amsterdam Weekly Sarah Gehrke, June 2007
ONE FOR FUSION,TWO
FOR THE SHOW
Is it world music? No. Is it drum & bass?
Nope. Is it rai? Nopers.
It's a Nomad Soundsystem.
Nomad Soundsystem
Roots Open Air, Oosterpark, 17 June, 17.00, free
A Tunisian singer. A German guitarist. A Japanese producer. An Algerian percussionist. And another German on the turntables.
Berlin-based Nomad Soundsystem sound like the perfect multicultural idyll. Blending traditional Arabic raï music with breakbeat,
dub loops, oriental sounds and, basically, every other musical element that they happen to like they`re globalisation gone good.
'It all started sometime between late 2002 and early 2003,' DJ Shazam says. 'I had a regular club night in Berlin back then,
where I introduced David, our guitarist, and Tomoki. They jammed for half an hour, and it clicked immediately.
David, in turn, hosted a cross-culture jam session at the time, where he met Karim. Originally, Karim, who had just moved over
from Tunisia, applied as extra percussionist, because he had heard they needed someone to temporarily fill in for Miloud, who
was their regular percussionist. But then it turned out he could sing like a bird! He had also already worked as a singer
before. They decided to keep him for the vocals. I joined the band myself a little later on. So that's how it all came
together.'
Nomad Soundsystem's eponymous debut album was released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland a month ago. 'We took our time
with recording it,' Shazam explains, 'because we wanted our sound to grow naturally. I think that's especially important
if you're working together in such a multicultural crew, where everyone's got a different background. For example,
you can't just throw a breakbeat at an Arabian singer and tell him to sing over it. You're gonna have to drag him through
all the clubs first to make sure he knows what the whole thing's about.
Same thing goes for the other way round, of course.' With two members of the group coming from a raï background, that style
is an important element in Nomad Soundsystem's music. 'Karim's singing certainly gets a raï sound into our music. But we
approach it in another way. Arrangement-wise, we're very different from traditional raï. Tomoki, who's responsible for our
beats, had been DJing for decades, and he really brings in a fresh sound.'
Shazam, meanwhile, likes to throw drum & bass and dub styles into the Nomad mixture. Although this is his main project,
he's also active as a solo DJ, always trying to combine Western beats with sounds from all over the world. 'I've always
been fascinated with other cultures and their music. Maybe one reason for that is that in Germany, many people still have
a sort of cultural identity problem. I grew up with that, you know. We don't easily identify with our own culture and that
makes other cultures even more interesting, and maybe easier to assimilate, too.' Because of their fusing together
electronica with ethno influences, Nomad Soundsystem feel equally at home in both the club scene and world music festivals.
'I have to admit, though, that so far there's been more attention from the world music corner. But I believe that the club
scene is becoming more and more attentive towards the kind of fusion music we do. In Berlin, there was that Russendisko hype,
when Russian music took over the clubs, and it was a huge success. That is now continued with the whole Balkan beats craze
that's currently going on all over Europe. Then there's been more mainstream stuff which used ethno elements, like Panjabi
MC, for example. Or take 'Galvanise' by the Chemical Brothers. They had that fat oriental sample combined with bigbeat
sounds dominating the charts for weeks.'
However, Nomad Soundsystem don't plan to jump on whichever bandwagon any time soon. 'Our aim has always been to create a
unique sound, instead of just sitting down and copying something that's already been done before. Too many people do that.
I mean it's all very nice to make the same kind of music that's been made for decades and decades. It may still sound good.
But I really wish there'd be more experimenting. You know, I'm one for fusion, really.....
Christian Rath in taz, 05 July 2005
..... Two o clock at night in Heinepark at the award winner concert
the Tunisian proved not only having an excellent voice, but also the
potential of being a charming frontman. The five musicians from Berlin
call their dance sound Oriental Fusion Style , you could as well call
it Elektro-Rai . The band is much more colourful than Berlin is .....
Norbert Krampf in FAZ, 08 June 2005
.... Nomad SoundSystem from Berlin showed how the gap between Ethno,
Pop and Electronic can be bridged & The contemporary eclectics
consequently work on a well-contrived fusion of personal roots,
traditional instruments and current technology. It s especially
those formations who own the globalized future ....
Skug, Journal for Music, Vienna; November 2005
..... At the beginning it smelled to me somehow like another by-product of the hype
concerning Multikulti Chill Culture , Café del Mar , briefly:
like pre-produced music without any spark of performative quality at all.
What did convince me at last? The mass hackling greedy for encores,
the band´s somehow innocent self-forgetting while playing and the
dignified split between Berlin urbanity and a sincere awareness for
Maghrebian Folk Music for closing the eyes and listening to, for
ecstatic dancing and rocking to. The band left the stage by passing through the audience, drumming heavily and smiling satisfied .....
FAZ 13 October 2005:
..... (The) hot-tempered concerts are a vital evidence for quality which is
inherent in intercultural dialogues when participants are listening to each
other seriously and their individual roots remain present .....
