Nudge

biography
Nudge has been a working group for five years, centered around Brian Foote (who runs the Outward Music and Audra Glint labels), Paul Dickow (also a solo artist who works under the name Strategy) and Honey Owens, a member of Jackie-O Motherfucker and programmer at the Dunes Club in Portland. Nudge works through marathon improvisations and edits that cohese into perfectly formed future musics. Merging live instrumentation and singing with programmed material, Nudge play what most artists working in electronic music sequence. Maybe this is what accounts for the remarkable warmth at the center of Nudge's complex technologies.

Outward Music Company released the debut Nudge CD, Trick Doubt in 2002. Dave Segal wrote in the Portland Mercury that the album "sounded like a sugared-up Tortoise splashing vivid colors onto cool jazz's charcoal-hued canvas." The three contributors played an active role in the Portland area's impossible to categorize independent music scene at a time when improvising, noise and angular funk bands were elbow to elbow with laptop musicians.

The second Nudge album, Elaborate Devices for Filtering Crisis, was released on the Tigerbeat 6 label in spring 2003. It's a mark of the appeal Nudge holds that the audio pranksters at Tigerbeat 6 could enjoy the band. Further refining both their working method and the final product, Nudge created a smoother blend of sounds. The Brain noted that:

"I'm always a big fan of crossing musical styles, and here, electronic software-based sounds are combined with the musicianship and direction of experienced improvisationalists. The ten songs each exhibit new directions in songcraft, dismissing expectations of how voice, rhythm and basic instrumentation interact. In a similar move like breakthrough albums like Lamb and Dntel, vocal tracks, like the opener, "Blue Screen," have a very progressive pop sensibility, without ever being abrasive, noisy or too busy."

Working around the members' commitments to other projects, Nudge started working on their first album for kranky in early 2004. Brian Foote took on responsibility at the Audra Glint label while Owens recorded and toured with JOMF and Strategy released the Drumsolo's Delight album on kranky. Getting together to play, record and edit as a trio Nudge carefully put together the album they entitled Cached. Building a framework of acoustic and electric instrumentation, the group also edited and arranged the recordings themselves.

The final mastering of Cahced was concluded in early 2005 and the album is scheduled for release on May 16 on kranky. Nudge plan to play live to support the new album beginning on March 24 and expect to appear across North America. A 12" single is also slated for release on Paul Dickow's Community Library imprint.

selected discography
Trick Doubt CD [Outward Music Company]
Elaborate Devices for Filtering Crisis CD [Tigerbeat6]

kranky titles available
Cached

external links
http://www.myspace.com/nudgetheband