The Nomad, to Infinity and beyond ...

After a relatively prolonged period of hiatus, pioneering Aotearoa electronic producer Daimon Schwalger, aka The Nomad, has had a busy past twelve months or so; not only with a return to live performances and DJ-ing gigs, but with the careful curation of two compilation albums released to celebrate a quarter of a century of making music.

Those two compilations come in the form of Infinite and Infinite II. A recent social media post from Schwalger hinted that a third compilation might also be a current work-in-progress.

Let’s hope so – The Nomad has been at the forefront of the development of electronic music in this country, with seven full album releases, an early EP (Concentrated, 2002), and one previous compilation album (Selected Works, 2008), across that 25-year period, so it’s fair to say his back catalogue is expansive enough to easily accommodate a third volume of Infinite.

 Initially, Infinite and Infinite II were exclusive limited edition vinyl releases but thankfully they’re now both available as digital downloads on Bandcamp (here), something that will ensure their reach is a lot more widespread than it might otherwise have been.

Each volume of Infinite is notable for the variety of musical styles on offer – The Nomad’s debut release ‘Movement’ is widely touted as New Zealand’s first ever drum n bass release but the palate across all subsequent releases beyond the 1998 debut broadens into reggae, dub, trap, dubstep, techno, some experimental stuff, and morsels of just about every other club or dance music trend this century has had to offer.

The other most obvious feature of each album is the heavyweight collabs deployed with The Nomad’s co-credit support cast being a virtual Who’s Who, anyone who’s anyone, list of local musical talent. Plus a fair few of the international variety as well; local co-conspirators include Julia Deans, Pearl Runga, Lisa Tomlins, Barnaby Weir, Tiki Taane, King Kapisi, Tehimana Kerr, MC Antsman, Ras Stone, Israel Starr, Oakley Grenell, plus fellow local production pioneer Opiuo. Those bringing the overseas vibes include Dexta Malawi, MC Lotek, and true giants of the dub and reggae scenes such as Luciano and the Mad Professor.

Plus there’s been many others (not mentioned above) who have also brought the love to The Nomad’s sound across the course of his wholly unique musical journey. It is surely testament to how highly regarded he is that so many high-profile talents have seamlessly slotted into his musical vision.

 Having interviewed Schwalger for NZ Musician magazine back in 2014 (here) upon the release of the seventh Nomad album, the aptly named 7, I can attest that he was a pleasure to deal with, and certainly one of the more pragmatic, honest, and down-to-earth local musicians I’ve met. You simply don’t survive and thrive for a full quarter of a century in the music and production business in this country unless you’re cut from the right cloth, and you’re prepared or able to collaborate without fuss.  

Listening to both Infinite and Infinite II are no-skip events, so I wouldn’t recommend you single out specific cuts, but if pushed, my own Five Favourite Essential Nomad Cuts, all of which feature on either album, would be: ‘Destinations’, ‘Deeper’ ft. Saritah & Jornick, Opiuo’s remix of ‘Devil In The Dark’ ft. Julia Deans, ‘Combination Dub AD’ ft. MC Antsman, and one of his sleeper hits, ‘Seductive Wolf Eyes’ ft. Christina Roberts.

I’m looking forward to Infinite III already.