NuL is a South African band formed in 1998 by Adriaan Pelzer and Simon Kruger, operating as NuL since 2004. NuL creates

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

EBM/

Industrial music Industrial music is a genre of music that draws on harsh, mechanical, transgressive or provocative sounds and themes. AllMusic defines industrial music as the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music" that was "initiall ...

, and propagates the free distribution of their music. Apart from conventional CD sales, they distribute all of their music freely on the internet, licensed under the

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivs license. The music is seeded directly from thei
website
They also encourage fans on their website to pirate their CD by making the CD artwork of their first CD available as free downloads.

History

When their highly avant-garde rock band, Nothing, broke up in 1998, Adriaan Pelzer and Simon Kruger started experimenting with computer music on a Pentium II 350 MHz, using mainly software like

Fruity Loops FL Studio (previously known as FruityLoops before 2003) is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by the Belgian company Image-Line. FL Studio features a graphical user interface with a pattern-based music sequencer. The program is availa ...

and

Cool Edit Pro Adobe Audition is a digital audio workstation developed by Adobe Inc. featuring both a multitrack, non-destructive mix/edit environment and a destructive-approach waveform editing view. Origins Syntrillium Software was founded in the early 199 ...

, but also experimenting with the possibilities of music production on

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

-based systems. They were both based in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

at the time. Initially inspired by the works of

Aphex Twin Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known as Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born British musician, composer and DJ. He is known for his idiosyncratic work in electronic music, electronic styles such as techno, ambient music, ambient, and jun ...

Autechre Autechre () is an English electronic music duo consisting of Rob Brown and Sean Booth, both from Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1987, they are among the best known acts signed to UK electronic label Warp Records, through which all of Au ...

and

Squarepusher Tom Jenkinson (born 17 January 1975), known professionally as Squarepusher, is an English electronic musician, record producer, bassist, multi-instrumentalist and DJ. His music spans several genres including drum and bass, IDM, acid house, ...

, they produced a number of

Glitch A glitch is a short-lived fault in a system, such as a transient fault that corrects itself, making it difficult to troubleshoot. The term is particularly common in the computing and electronics industries, in circuit bending, as well as among ...

-inspired pieces that were later to be released on the Een album. When Simon moved to London in 2002, Adriaan continued the legacy, and developed the musical style into a more hard-edged,

Industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

-influenced direction. Shortly after Simon's return to

in 2004, Adriaan moved to Singapore, where he topped the development of the new, harder style with EBM influences. Here he founded the NuL website, where all of NuL's music is seeded from onto the Internet. In 2006 he returned to

, and together with Simon, Dawid Kahts (Thys Nywerheid), and Adriaan's wife, actress Mareli Minnaar, formed the band, NuL, who are rapidly becoming known for their energetic live performances. Later in 2006 the band was joined by Visual Artist

Niel de Lange Niel may refer to: * Niel, Belgium, town and municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp **Niel Jaarmarkt Cyclo-cross, cyclo-cross race held in Niel, Belgium, and part of the Cyclo-cross Gazet van Antwerpen *Prix Niel, Group 2 flat hor ...

, who added a whole new dimension to NuL's live performance with live Video Mixing. In 2007 Gerrie Roos joined NuL as their permanent Sound Engineer, and Chris Erasmus became the seventh member of NuL, as their permanent lighting technician and

videographer Videography is the process of capturing moving images on electronic media (e.g., videotape, direct to disk recording, or solid state storage) and even streaming media. The term includes methods of video production and post-production. It used ...

. After experimental videos made for Swart and Kaper, NuL filmed their first full-fledged Music Video of Online Superstar in the winter of 2008, with Erasmus operating the camera, de Lange as set designer, and Pelzer as Director. The Video featured none of the bandmembers themselves, but instead

Dai Zaobab Dai may refer to: Names * Dai (given name), a Welsh or Japanese masculine given name * Dai (surname) (戴), a Chinese surname Places and regimes * Dai Commandery, a commandery of the state of Zhao and in early imperial China * Dai County, in Xin ...

, internationally acclaimed firedancer and self-proclaimed Boabab Hunter. The video was launched on TV for the first time on the Afrikaans music channel, MK. In 2007 NuL signed a distribution deal with OneF Records, run by

Paul Riekert Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

of the first ever, hugely successful Afrikaans Industrial band,

Battery9 Battery 9 (pronounced, in Afrikaans, as ''Butteray Nea-ge''), an industrial music project from Johannesburg, South Africa, is the brainchild of Paul Riekert, who writes, plays and records the music in a mixture of English and Afrikaans. The band ...

. 2009 saw an increase in activity for NuL following the launch of their third album, Drie, In June. 2009 also brought about some changes in the lineup with the departure of VJ

. The band, opting not to try and replace his artistry, compensated by focusing on introducing a more organic and dynamic feel to their live shows utilising

Chris Erasmus' phenomenal ability as a lighting technician.

Discography

Een

#Wakkerslaap #Op die Spykertafel #Rina #Die Gatsometer #280g #Atari #In die Aand in die Spens #Die Ysterkoei met Beet #Cancancancancancancan #Hie Haai Hie Haai Hou #Don't mock the Animals #Somer III #Guy W Brush #Nooit op Mars #Die Generiese Ooms met die Ligblou Windbreakers

Twee

#Online Superstar #Vrees #Swart #Pyn #Kokainekop Kosie #Kaper #Rina #Kontaminasie #Gerome Djimbovski #Hardcore Rina #Utopia

Drie

#Elektro-Berzerk #Über-Rampokker #Mystic Bohemia #Die Man Van Telkom #God red die President #Hoëveld #Utopia #Vloek #Kokainekop Kosie (kom af) #Vloek dub mix #Elektro-Berzerk (refleksie)

Unreleased

(But downloadable from their website) #Laan van Smarte #Plek

References

External links

- Official site

- Official site

- Profile and discography at

discogs.com Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the l ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nul (Band) Electronic body music groups South African industrial music groups Musical groups established in 1998 South African rock music groups