Feed Your Stereo: Craig Richards - Sleeping Rough (The Nothing Special)

We’re not completely sure just how deep people realise the influence of Craig Richards goes in the musical outpourings of our Farringdon home; there are just so many facets to it. For starters he’s here almost every weekend shaping the sonic aesthetic of the club via his expansive and travelled record collection. Then there’s his role in the building of the overall lineups and the direction of his club nights within club nights, Tyrant and The Nothing Special. The Nothing Special is really about Craig’s DJ sets collaborating with live music; between the live acts he becomes a linking mechanism between the distinct and differing performances. He’s there to create a smooth flow and platform for his guest’s music. This approach has earned Craig a reputation for putting on a new and demanding listening experience each time, but thanks to the strength of the format, his DJing and the performers he’s proven that people like Dopplereffekt and Convextion or Morphosis and Pinch can all work on the same bill. So, following the tradition for presenting such an array of music, it makes sense that the label arm of The Nothing Special would reflect that. Starting off with Radioactive Man and Billy Nasty’s first release as Radionasty at the tail end of 2011, the label followed up some moths later with one of Trevino’s early offerings but now it’s Craig’s own production that will finally be taking centre stage. If you’ve caught any of his sets here lately it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll have heard some of these on our tried and tested Martin Audio soundsystem and that fact is almost as unsurprising as the range of genres he channels over the three tracks that feature on the record, which all ripple with some manner of the roots echoed by his previous Bristolian guests. We know it’s a bit close to home to blow the proverbial trumpet so hard, but there really is nobody like Craig Richards so we feel proud to be able to present and support this new release on his behalf. Previews are in the player below and the record is available on pre-order on this link.