If you haven’t already had your mind warped by MISSING NIN’s new video for Nature Of The Beast, stop what you’re doing and go watch the clip now. A re-working of Arca’s 2014 release Xen, Nature Of The Beast is the latest in a string of consistently great, consistently unsettling releases from the Melbourne artist – many of which feature samples of other songs.
So, fresh off the release of the new video clip, we caught up with the artist himself for a run-down of each track he’s sampled. Take it away MISSING NIN…
With a seriously unsettling new video for Nature Of The Beast under his belt, we caught up with MISSING NIN for a run-down of each track he’s sampled in his own music.
The Dazz Band – Let It Whip (sampled in IN SPITE and YEAH)
I’ve got a catalogue of Motown era music on my laptop, so when I’m looking for samples, that’s the first place I go. The main sample from IN SPITE was inspired by When A Fire Starts To Burn by Disclosure, so I went on the hunt for a good gospel preacher sample and built the rest of the song around that. I needed some soulful vocal chops to complement the soul of the preacher sample so I went digging through my Motown collection and came across some vocal licks that can be heard throughout the song.
I also stumbled across the YEAH sample when listening through Let It Whip and rather than try to fit all the good samples into one song, I decided to make another one entirely.
Elephant Man – Fan Dem Off (sampled in BAD MAN)
Funnily enough, BAD MAN was only made because I wasn’t happy with the sound of the lead synth on IN SPITE. I tried a bunch of different sounds and came up with the
BAD MAN synth and used that as the foundation for song. Around the time I made BAD MAN, The Blacker The Berry by Kendrick Lamar came out, and I thought the aggression of that song coupled with the Assassin feature was the coolest thing ever, so I tried to emulate that vibe in my own song and went digging through a bunch of dancehall songs until I found Fan Dem Off.
Chet Faker – Cigarettes & Loneliness (sampled in pursuit)
Before MISSING NIN was even a thing, I wanted to make synth-pop music. Back in 2014, my sister had suggested that she and I do a cover of Cigarettes & Loneliness, so in trying to find an original way of recording the as a cover I came up with this beat.
Alpine – Up For Air/Blu Cantrell – Breathe/Madvillain – Great Day (sampled in thefeeling)
From the synth lines to the harmonies, there are so many great elements in Up For Air, and on my very first listen of the song I knew I wanted to try and flip it. I took the synth and the intro vocals and coupled that with some subtle vocal chops in the chorus that were pulled from Breathe by Blu Cantrell. As themissingfiles project was initially made as a homage to a bunch of artists that inspired MISSING NIN, it seemed wrong to not have a DOOM sample in there, luckily enough, I managed to find a sample that fit perfectly with what I wanted for this particular track.
Dennis Edwards & Siedah Garrett – Don’t Look Any Further (sampled in 3leggedstool)
Fun fact, this beat was the first complete song I ever made, and I had been sitting on it for about 3 or 4 years prior to its release. Similar to IN SPITE, I was going through a bunch of Motown songs and found some awesome samples within the first 30 seconds of listening to Don’t Look Any Further then worked off of that. I was trying to make some Flying Lotus-esque drums to go with what I had already laid down and eventually ended up with 3leggedstool.
Grimes – Eight (sampled in trythis)
Without Visions by Grimes, there would be no MISSING NIN. I was obsessed with that album when it came out and had only really just got into making music around the time of its release, so as a result of my obsession, I ended up studying what hardware she used when recording and playing live shows and bought the exact same gear as her then decided to have a proper crack at music. Just like the DOOM sample, it would’ve been rude not to include some Grimes in the making of themissingfiles.
MISSING NIN’s new video for Nature Of The Beast is available now. Watch it here.
