Not many producers can say they were handpicked by Sasha as his breakthrough DJ/producer of the year. But that’s exactly what happened to Ephraim Dean – aka prog producer Nomad In The Dark – after he exploded onto the scene with his bootleg mix of Burial’s ‘Archangel’.
That track – which he shared with Nick Warren on the old Global Underground message board – quickly found its way into the hands of Hernan Cattaneo, John Digweed, Sasha and Pete Tong, who played it on his Radio One Essential Selection show.
“This all happened in the space of a few days,” Ephraim says. “Norman Hines, who runs Stripped Records, reached out and said, ‘Hey, do you have anything lying around?’ So I gave him these two tracks I’d written that were named after my daughters – Attia and Neriya – and he signed them. Then I started getting videos back from everywhere, like Sasha playing it at Womb in Tokyo and Sankeys in Manchester. It just snowballed. All of a sudden I was getting a bunch of remix requests and DJ bookings. I remember one request for a gig in Malta, but I couldn’t go because I couldn’t get a visa.”
A Fine Balance
All of that was crowned in 2009 when Sasha named Nomad In The Dark as his breakthrough artist of the year in DJmag. “Sasha is one of my heroes, so it was just phenomenal to get that recognition,” says Ephraim.
Since then, under the Nomad In The Dark moniker, he has released music on labels including Atlant, Audio Therapy, Armada, Black Hole Recordings, Global Underground, Hope Recordings, Pangea Recordings and Stripped. His track ‘Drones’ also made its way onto Nick Warren’s ‘Balance 18’ compilation back in 2011.
“Nick reached out and said he was doing a compilation and asked if I had anything he could use,” Ephraim recalls. “I sent him two tracks, and one of them made it on there. I was trying something different with that track too, and I think it worked out pretty well.”
Walkman
Although Ephraim’s DJ and production career flourished in the States, his passion for DJing began back in Pakistan, before he emigrated to the US. As a schoolboy, he was introduced to jungle and drum & bass tapes from DJs like Hype and Ellis Dee – along with progressive house mixes by Sasha and Digweed – thanks to friends who had returned from the UK.
“In 1995 in Pakistan, nobody had heard of Technics turntables or anything like that,” says Ephraim. “I had a Sony Walkman Professional, which had pitch control. It opened on both sides: you could put a cassette on one side and record on the other one. Those were my decks. I didn’t have a mixer, but I had a boom box and it had auxiliary cables running into it. So, I had a Y-cable that was splitting the signal. It was atrocious, but I was really happy because I was able to make mixtapes.”
Moog Moves
In 1997, Ephraim moved to the US for college, bought a $100 belt-drive turntable, and picked up a second one with pitch control on eBay. That’s when he started DJing properly – first at college parties, then at local clubs in Asheville, North Carolina, where he’s still based and often performs as part of the trio In Plain Sight.
The Burial bootleg catapulted Nomad In The Dark into the spotlight, and gig offers poured in. But with a young family, touring wasn’t an option for Ephraim at that time. Instead, he took a job at legendary synth maker Moog, based in Asheville – first managing their Moogfest festival, then leading the IT department and helping calibrate their synths. Unlike most people who worked there, he only used his staff discount to amass a modest haul of gear – a Sub 37, a Sirin and a Minitaur – preferring to do most of his production inside Ableton.
Chromatic
While the remix work has continued (as have the bootlegs), his run of original productions ended just before the pandemic. Until now. Thankfully, Ephraim returns with a Nomad In The Dark double-header on recently launched prog label Friday Island – the ‘Chromatic EP’.
First cut on the EP is ‘Magenta 1’, a deep prog set builder where atmospheric pads float above a grooving backdrop of stripped-back beats and plucky bass. Glasgow producer Gowzer gives it a re-rub, injecting a darker undercurrent with anxious stabs and scattered textural leads that twist through the mix – ideal for late-night sessions.
The Spooky-influenced ‘Sienna 23’ follows – another classic prog odyssey with shape-shifting chords and widescreen synths all designed to dazzle dancers as they march into the cosmic unknown. This time Cardiff-based The Running Man – fresh off his own debut release on Friday Island – steps up with a spellbinding prog-breaks remix that fuses window-rattling bass and prickly synth sequences.
Balancing deep emotion with dancefloor precision, the ‘Chromatic EP’ – out now exclusively on Beatport – is a forward-facing release that firmly puts Nomad In The Dark back in the spotlight.
