Nikki Nair – Default Mode

Atlanta producer Nikki Nair has signed to dh2, George Daniel’s dance-focused Dirty Hit sublabel, and shares “Default Mode,” the first single from his new EP The Sick Dimension, out August 7th. It’s his first solo studio output since 2025’s Violence Is The Answer on Future Classic, and it lands off the back of a run that’s included a collaboration with The Avalanches on “Together.” It also includes remix work for Caroline Polachek, Kylie Minogue, and The Blessed Madonna.

Nair built this one from what he calls “all of the weird gear that I have,” and the result is house music filtered through someone whose instincts run toward UK breakbeat, garage, electro, and techno rather than anything strictly four-on-the-floor. He’s been characteristically self-deprecating about the whole thing: he set out to make house music, failed by his measure, and ended up with what he jokingly calls four mistakes packaged as an EP. His actual explanation is more interesting than the joke suggests. “In my mind, I’m making normal house music, but when I get feedback, I guess it does not sound like normal house music to most people,” he says. That gap between intention and reception is basically the entire appeal: a drum-driven track that still carries his signature edge, vocals woven through the mix rather than sitting on top of it.