SOUND COALITIONS / Episode 25: Guest Mix featuring Ray Nicholes

Sound Coalitions by Christopher Foor

Miami is internationally recognized for it's electronic music and parties. From Miami Music Week, to Ultra Music Festival, Art Basel and more, Miami has set a standard to the quality and immensity of productions it holds in the United States scene. However, Miami tends to focus on house, minimal, and EDM. Supporting Left field house and techno genres, not to mention ambient or drum and bass, can be challenging for promoters, clubs, and artists alike. Sound Coalitions would like to showcase Ray Nicholes, a Miami local techno talent, as an individual that is bringing a direct passion for techno to the Miami scene. Christopher Foor met Ray at an Assimilate gig at Treehouse Nightclub in Miami in the autumn. Talking outside the club for hours after the show, Christopher and Ray discussed the difficulties, strengths, oddities, and potentials Miami presents as a city with deficits in certain genres of electronic music, but more importantly, what to do to switch this up. The passion/openness to ideas in terms of bonds between straight-ally and LGBTQ+ communities in electronic music that Ray presented were warm, grounded, and forward thinking. In addition to the ally ship and energetic demeanor of Ray, he's also a skilled artist with a multi-genre background influencing his musical ability. Ray presented us with a two and a half hour mix, artfully utilizing four CDJ's the entire mix to blend the mid's-harmony, baseline, and highs from one chapter to the next. To learn more about Ray, his productions, his events in Miami and beyond, please check out these links: http://raynicholes.com http://classic.beatport.com/artist/ray-nicholes/155435 https://blacknationrecords.bandcamp.com https://www.mixcloud.com/raynicholes/ https://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/raynicholes https://soundcloud.com/raynicholes