You’d be hard pressed to find contemporary up-and-comers who are as qualified to build on the legacy of the minimal genre as Ne.hau. By utilizing cutting-edge production methods to take calculated creative risks, the DJ/producer duo brings unprecedented dimension to the house and techno spectrum.
Between singles like “Little Humans” and their Christian Thomas collaboration, “I Believe” (which came out on Circles Digital Records and Draft Ltd, respectively), the duo’s music has already been received quite well. Their 2016 Kill Switch EP, on which the latter track came out, even remained in Beatport’s Minimal Top 10 for roughly two weeks.
Each of the outfit’s releases not only demonstrates keen attention to sound quality, but also speaks to a reverence for the process that could only result from genuine musical passion. In addition to crisp stereo imaging, each soundscape features organic and instrumental sounds – and fittingly, they’ve incorporated such elements into their engaging live shows as well.
Ne.hau consists of Danny Marin and Ren Albieri, who hail from Denver and Austin, respectively. When you take into account their combined tenure in the music world, it comes as no surprise that they have achieved such a finely tuned signature sound.
Marin was born in Ventura, California and relocated to Fort Collins, Colorado as a child. After learning to DJ from a handful of friends and taking an interest in turntablism at the age of 13, he stumbled upon electronic music while crate digging at the local record shop (where he eventually became an employee). Tracks by the likes of Leftfield, DJ Icey and The Crystal Method made up the soundtrack of his formative years, and he became a fixture at such Boulder mainstays as The Root and Soma. In the mid-2000s he even came to DJ at posh Denver bottle service clubs like Suite 200, The Purple Martini and Taboo.
Meanwhile, Albieri had been steeped in dance culture abroad. He was born in São Paulo, Brazil and grew up with his mother in Dallas, Texas, but would return to São Paulo intermittently to visit his father, who was a club owner. Seeing as he’d already found himself behind the decks at the age of 13, it only makes sense that he became a DJ and producer. Later on his father became head of security at Pacha Ibiza which afforded him exposure to club culture abroad and solidified his career path as a musician.
After getting their feet wet in the dance music scene for some time, Danny Marin and Ren Albieri met at a convenient crossroads between both of their musical paths. Marin suffered something of an identity crisis in 2009 after feeding into what he felt to be a disingenuous subset of the music scene, and Albieri had dropped out of school in Portland, Oregon. They each decided to attend audio engineering courses at the Phoenix Conservatory of Music independently of one another in 2010. They immediately connected, marking the beginning of their collaborative friendship.
After Marin and Albieri refined their studio process down to a science, they launched the Ne.hau project in 2016. After their debut single, “Plurality,” they released a remix of P-rez’ “Watcha Do” through Denied Music.
Another landmark Ne.hau track is “Little Humans,” which came out on Circles Digital Records. The song’s featured vocalist, Nubu, became a staple of their live shows as they performed throughout Denver and Austin, helping to define their eclectic signature sound.
Perhaps the most notable Ne.hau release thus far is their Christian Thomas collaboration, “I Believe.” The dark, primal production arrived by way of Draft Ltd, and garnered a bit more exposure than anything else the duo has put out to date.
Be that as it may, all of what Ne.hau puts out exhibits state-of-the-art sound synthesis at every level of the arrangement. By utilizing advanced techniques like subtractive and negative EQing, they’ve proven themselves capable of repeatedly turning out layered, three-dimensional soundscapes a cut above what most other house and techno artists offer up.
In 2017 and beyond, electronic music fans can expect Ne.hau to increase their pace of delivery even further. With a growing body of work encompassing the scope of minimal styles, it’s only a matter of time before their name finds itself on the lips of music enthusiasts across the globe.
