The NTS Hard Crew is a micro-collective formed for the NTS radio broadcast of the same name on May 4, 2023, formed by artists aya, Jennifer Walton, Xin, Nymity and Kast, which serves as a "warm-up" for the Bangface festival, which would take place days later.
Like the festival, the session consists of music genres such as techno, jungle, hardcore breakbeat, drum 'n' bass, and the like, characterized by fast speeds and digitally manipulated percussion, which are also popular on the radio by themselves.
The hour-long mix is a B2B format, meaning "back-to-back," a format popular in DJ sets, in which artists mix together, or at the same time. In addition to mixing, short jokes, comments, audience interactions, or chants of song lyrics are also heard throughout the broadcast, which is common on the station.
In addition to mixing, brief jokes, comments, audience interactions, or singing of song lyrics are also heard throughout the broadcast, which is common at the station.
The mix is archived on NTS, so you can listen to it in its entirety:
Now, who are the members, and/or what do they do?
Nymity was the first member of the group that I discovered separately, as I thought his name would be the easiest to find.
Nymity is an artist, runs his own label, Skewed From View, has released two EPs and sporadic tracks on Soundcloud and has a monthly show on the same radio station.
https://skewedfromview.bandcamp.com/music
https://www.nts.live/shows/debt-refuge
He is also a DJ, and mixes similar genres to the first session, with acompletely different atmosphere to his music.
Continuing with aya, full name aya sinclair, formerly known as LOFT.
She is also an artist and DJ, and runs her own label, YCO, along with BFFT, an artist and friend of hers.
She was previously known as LOFT, alias with which she released an EP on Tri-Line label, apart from miscellaneous compilations and remixes on Bandcamp, and did a session for Boiler Room in 2018.
In 2021, she released herdebut album as aya, "im hole", with the Hyperdub label, categorized as abstract, deconstructed club, and experimental.
You can read more on Hyperdub's website: https://hyperdub.net/products/aya-im-hole
On the 23rd she also released on YCO her EP "Lip Flip", which contains a collaboration with her former alias, a track previously seen at her Boiler Room concert, and serves as a fundraiser for her facial feminization surgery.
aya-yco.bandcamp.com/album/lip-flip
She also had two sessions at Boiler Room under the name aya, one solo in October 2023, and one together with BFFT in November 2022.
Besides, she also has a bimonthly show on NTS, with a session broadcasted yesterday, where she intercalates between genres like the first session, more commercial like club and techno, and less conventional like ambient or experimental.
Following by Jennifer Walton, active member of Kero Kero Bonito's musical group. She works for NTS, apart from collaborating frequently in sessions of the same one, music producer and DJ.
She also produced the EP Icarus by Cryalot, alternative alias of Sarah Midori Perry, also of Kero Kero Bonito, and is part of the alias "Microplastics" with aya, name under which they have shown songs, but without any official release, in DJ mixes and radio sessions.
She mixes almost everything from genres similar to NTS Hard Crew, to jersey club and dubstep, to glitch and ambient, and has experimental releases, to WHITE NURSE, his debut album, of harsh noise.
Now is a good time to showcase the March 22, 2023 session from the Nymity show, where he appears with Jennifer. One of the group's many collaborations, and genuinely one of the best NTS sessions I've heard.
https://www.nts.live/shows/debt-refuge/episodes/debt-refuge-22nd-march-2023
(NOTE: Nymity is also Head of Sound Engineering for NTS radio)
Continuing by Kast, also a DJ, and a frequent contributor to Nymity's label, Skewed From View.
He has a monthly show on NTS, apart from collaborating on others and has composed a song on his Soundcloud. He has Bandcamp, but it's empty.
He plays experimental music and also DJs it along with ambient, although he also has programs in genres from folk, to jungle, to soul, jazz, hip hop, and noise.
(Kast's section has teken me forever to find, if you care.)
And the last member of the group, Xin.
(I would post a picture, but I don't think he has social media).
He is a producer of glitch and ambient music, has an EP and an album with Subtext Records.
I couldn't find much more, but the music is fantastic.
Now, why do I talk so much about these people, and what have they done for radio or experimental music?
(The subjective part of the article)
To be able to have seen how a collective, especially of such a small size, mutates and transforms itself into albums, radio sessions, concerts, and record labels, and in a genre as unconventional as experimental, is rare to see.
As an artist who also collaborates frequently, this networking, presumably formed from NTS, strengthens all the individual artists, the radio itself, and the collective itself, and the artistic amalgamation it results in, especially in the age of the Internet and the hyper-commercialization of music in which we find ourselves today, is nothing short of amazing to see.
Thank you, Hard Crew, for all that you have done, all that you are, and all that you have left to do.
(And please do another session).
And in case you're still reading:
Hello, my name is Malísima, and I'm an experimental multidisciplinary artist.
My new album, "serotinia", was released in February, and it's now available on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/2wA8XBZdVDNv3agBlbskqS
Thanks for reading!
Finally, end of the article.
About the Creator
Malísima
Artist, experimental music producer, and painter.
Music journalist sometimes, poetry writer some other.
it/she/they
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