Nicole Raymond is a UK based DJ, turntablist, sound artist, composer, producer, tutor, sound engineer and radio presenter who advocates for diverse representation in the music industry, especially within DJ/Turntablism culture and music production realms, and for musician wellbeing/mental health. She runs/curates events such as “Dub Sirens” and “Melanin”, and in 2020 was a winner of an Oram Award.
Nicole’s presentation was energetic and passionate. She talked about representation in the media and how it is important that representation is diverse, criticizing media for portraying a ‘certain type of black British culture’ as opposed to the diversity that exists in reality.
She talked about the creative process of her latest, album Bashi, and how it came to be in a very natural way. She created the field recordings in rural Turkey with a zoom recorder. These recordings were not created with conceptual intent and her trip to Turkey was one to try and clear her mind. It was only after that the feeling of peace became a central theme.
I asked Nicole the following question:
Do you have a favourite ‘hidden gem’ record that you found while crate digging? What’s your favourite genre to search through?
She responded with the recommendation of an EP called Tusk by KLAUS. She elaborated on the culture of crate digging and how she had recently spent more time searching online for music that physical crate digging.
This is something that interests me as I have little experience in the turntable and DJ culture, but do, however, spend time searching online for music that I haven’t heard before. The EP she recommended, a minimal ambient dubstep-inspired record is great and is available below.