April 2021 – Singapore – No Label (aka Carlo Megighian) is a young Italian producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist from the small city of Padua. Recently partnered with Red Bull Records in 2020, his music came to the attention of the label for his unique experimental style.
No Label’s fluid music sensibilities ranges from maximalist glitchy electronica to languid ambient textures, all informed with a leftfield hip-hop sensibility from his roots producing for Italy’s biggest Trap/Rap artists.
With “MEGA”, the first of two Spring 2021 releases, No Label is the latest in a series of global artists to release singles through Red Bull Records. As a statement of intent and living up to its name, the track opens with a barrage of maximalist synths which suddenly disintegrates and collapses under a wall of percussive noise.
The track then breaks down with a semblance of hip-hop beats briefly together before it progresses into a plethora of warps, glitches and implodes once again. Commenting on what the song means to him, No Label shares, “With this new music, I wanted to detach myself from the previous multiform sound of No Label and focus on creating a new musical cycle that is more specific and identifiable. I see “MEGA” as a sort of distorted acid trip. In this track, I wanted to make the listener experience the most extreme mood changes possible, but always maintaining control of the song. Everything is punctuated by tension-filled orchestral samples in the style of Italian B-series western films.”
After Carlo became increasingly fixated with the gnarly sounds of Italian Trap with its banging 808s and tales of crime culture, it was at this point that his No Label alter ego began to take shape. “I just thought they were cool and the memes were funny, so as a joke I started making beats, but people kept asking for more and more of them. I didn’t take it seriously at first and even used an automatic name generator on google which came up with No Label and that has stuck.”
Whilst expanding his horizons beyond Trap, he was drawn to artists pushing the fringes of electronic music such as Flying Lotus and SOPHIE. As a result of his ever-evolving style, No Label’s production skills became increasingly noticed. A chance encounter led to leftfield Italian hip hop label Pluggers persuading him to create an album. The self-titled opus was released in late 2019, and this is where No Label fully expressed himself, weaving, chopping and pasting his way through a multitude of styles. No Label’s unique production style is now being recognised by major Italian Hip Hop / Trap artists, who began to look him up for his services.
No Label’s song “MEGA” is out now via Red Bull Records.
Stream “MEGA” here: ffm.to/mega
