Nick Liefhebber is a Dutch graphic designer working on a range of projects, like campaigns, typefaces and identities. Believing in solving problems with creative ideas and design he distills the essence of the message. Every story is unique, and so is every work.
This illustration for China Queen EP by Falco Benz & Nuno Dos Santos is a warm buzzing electronic dreamscape created with references to their inspiration, the music and the titles.
The China Queen EP on Nick’s Favorite Robot Records welcomes two new artists to the label in the form of Portuguese born, Dutch national Nuno Dos Santos and fellow Dutchman Falco Benz.
Dos Santos, head honcho of Something Happening Somewhere, has long been putting out underground house and techno. Besides classic tracks like ‘Hamming’ and his recent ‘Trigonometry of Love’ EP on his SoHaSo label, he has done remixes for Christian Löffler and Hunter/Game as well as for labels such as Planet E and D Edge. Benz, meanwhile, is a synth lover who favours soulful chords and melodies, disco beats from drum machines and 21st Century modernism and has ties to Magnetron Music.
First up here, the pair offer the excellently quirky Saupaulo, a warped deep house tune with gloopy bass wriggling away underneath crisp percussion. The drums are stiff and the whole thing has a freaky, after party vibe that really gets into your brain, especially thanks to the manic melodies that rain down the face of the whole thing.
On the flip, China Queen is even deeper and more stripped back, with drums and bass joined by panning sci-fi sounds and circling spacecraft. It’s curious and intriguing and unfolds with a real sense of narrative that occupies your head as your feet tap away.
This is a brilliant brace of tracks that offer something new and exciting from the Nick’s Favorite Robot label.
