Fact Mix 784: Wordcolour

A twisting, turning exploration of tempo from one of the UK’s brightest new club producers.

Nicholas Worrall’s multifacted musical career began with him composing and arranging music for TV and theatre, but a few years ago he adopted the Wordcolour alias when he began making club music and sampling human voices from musique concrète tapes, YouTube memes and film dialogue.

His first EP as Wordcolour, Tell Me Something, released on Barcelona’s Lapsus Records in June, is one of the year’s strongest debuts. Combining a wide variety of strange and unexpected vocal samples with a crisp, intricate production style that seems to draw on everything from ’80s FM pop to post-dubstep, his signature is both formally inventive and rich in emotion.

This month, Wordcolour released his second EP, Juno Way, which arrives on Houndstooth. A three-track release that explores a spectrum of tempos and moods, Juno Way is a homage to a “half-remembered, half-imagined, disappeared club space”, inspired by a visit to a venue in South Bermondsey called Juno Café, which closed during the first COVID-19 lockdown.

Wordcolour’s Fact Mix, which takes in tracks from Hodge, Forest Drive West, A.G. Cook, Sinistarr and many more, is a similarly nostalgic set. “This mix is my attempt at the kind of club sets I always enjoyed most – ones that have some twists and turns, and take you on a journey through a few different vibes and headspaces,” he says. “Exploring a couple of different tempos, I tried to turn the usual mix structure on its head a bit – starting and ending high energy, but coming down for some more dubby / ambient tracks in the middle.”

Juno Way is available now on Bandcamp.

Tracklist:

toasty – ‘Splash’ [self-released]
Sputnik One – ‘Country Living’ [Woozy]
Drum Thing – ‘No No’ [Scuffed Recordings]
Delay Grounds – ‘Lexxi’ [Pressure Dome]
Randomer & Hodge – ‘Second Freeze’ [Livity Sound]
Ben Pest – ‘Fuzzy Dreams’ [self-released]
Caldera – ‘Trödel Life (Night Mix)’ [Pressure Dome]
Piezo – ‘OiOiOi’ [self-released]
Flaty – ‘Plaksa’ [Gost Zvuk]
JV & Palf – ‘Gully’ [October Records]
Hodge – ‘Ghost of Akina (AYA 2010 All At Once Remix)’ [forthcoming on Houndstooth]
J:Kenzo – ‘Kingston Hot’ [self-released]
Epoch – ‘Ribcage Pt .2’ [Innamind Recordings]
bookworms – ‘fluctuations in temperature’ [Freedom To Spend]
Chynna – ‘stupkid’ [Twin Records]
Forest Drive West – ‘Void Control’ [R&S Records]
Laughing Ears – ‘Blue Dusk’ [DECISIONS]
A. G. Cook – ‘Acid Angel’ [PC Music]
Jennifer Walton (w/BFTT) – ‘Flash On’ [All Centre]
Sinistarr – ‘Detroit’ [Hooversound Recordings]
Ido Plumes – ‘Walking With The Tasman Abel’ [DECISIONS]
Itoa – ‘Turbo Sideman’ [Exit Records]
Fan Fiction – ‘when angels sing’ [NITE CORP.]
Hyroglifics & Sinistarr – ‘Turn Up’ [Hooversound Recordings]
FAKETHIAS & Syk Tariq – ‘Gummi’ [Massive Gain]
Baraka – ‘I’ll Be There’ [Boogie Beat Records]