Anotr & No Art – an Amsterdam-based collective building an empire.
Anotr and No Art are two worlds that live side-by-side. Both brands are essential for the other to grow. Just like Enzo Siragusa and FUSE, Adam Beyer and Drumcode or Charlotte de Witte and KNXNT, in the current electronic music scene, you need to own a brand or be attached to a brand to get noticed.
If you take the letters A N O R T – you can spell ‘No Art’ and ‘Anotr’ (pronounced as ‘another’).
The success of this artist and label is not by luck or accident. You can tell there is a well-managed plan by a crew of people who have made the right decisions. Their brand identity is also outstanding.
No Art - The Collective
Anotr is a DJ duo (Jesse and Oguzhan). No Art’s a collective of five friends (Jesse, Oguzhan, Bora, Ruud and Omid). The feature image is the five of them celebrating the sell-out of their No Art Festival earlier this year in Amsterdam. You also often see Bora, Ruud and Omid in the booth singing the lyrics to their tracks and bouncing up and down in unison when celebrating a moment. Anotr’s success is No Art’s success. It’s a friendship that goes beyond music that has turned into a business.
No Art - The Branding
One of the first things that stand out to me about No Art is their artwork – it’s very artistic with a range of hand-drawn figures and watercolours. It’s eye-catching with a lot going on but also pretty simple by design.
The ‘No Art’ logo is a simple italic font that resembles someone experimenting with a pencil or a permanent marker. The text is central, the same size and the most important information for the audience.
As soon as you see the artwork on Instagram, Beatport and Spotify, you know it’s their label.
No Art - Events
No Art rarely does club shows. No Art does events in iconic locations like churches, galleries and open-air spaces with character.
One of their values seems to be ‘create events in locations where music events should not happen’. You only have to look at the photos and videos to see how impressive their events look. This creates an experience. It’s an experience you will remember.
Another (wink wink) thing that you will notice is how all of their events are under red lights. There is a brand that takes place on Mondays in Ibiza that does this. It’s also how FUSE used to be in London at the start of 93.
No Art parties all look the same no matter what location you put them in. There is no stage, no screen, and the DJ booth is on the floor level, creating an intimate and rowdy atmosphere. As a raver, you know what to expect when you walk into the room. There is also an air of mystery as most of the spaces for No Art do events were not built for raves.
No Art’s showcases in Amsterdam are more in demand than ever, so it makes sense for them to bring this brand to the U.K. with shows in Manchester and London more often. It also makes sense for them to invest in open-air events as Amsterdam is the king of the festival circuit.
No Art - The Festival
Now then, let’s quickly talk about this. No Art announced ‘No Art Festival’ for the summer of 2022 in November.
No Art Festival is where everything that makes No Art comes together in one place. The lineup combined all the artists they have booked over the years. The second stage (Dyed Soundorom, pictured) had the neon sign and the circular lighting that you see at all of their events. It even included live art installations and a fashion show.
Then there’s the main stage. The production is a level above what No Art has been able to do in a church or venue. I’m interested to see whether they carry on this production at their ADE shows this year and show us something we have never seen before.
No Art announced their 2023 festival with the recording of Anotr's set from the festival last summer.
No Art - YouTube
No Art’s YouTube channel audience is small if you look at the subscribers in comparison to what their other channels reach. What’s staggering is their channel has over 750,000 views from only 6k subscribers.
Anotr’s most famous single release ‘Vertigo’ is 10% of those views. The majority of the views come from live streams at their events.
Alongside Anotr, Toman has become an underground music mainstay thanks to his sets at No Art. There are two Toman sets on the No Art YouTube channel combining up to 150,000 views – this is more than any other artist. Toman is like an adopted 6th member of the No Art crew.
Some Ideas for you:
Now, this section of The Blueprint is new and it seemed to make an impact last week. Here are some ideas for you from what I’ve learned about Anotr or No Art and how you can implement them yourself.
If you’re a close group of friends, invest in something together. Find different roles for each of you and build an audience of your audience.
Consider becoming part of a DJ duo or reach out to create collaborations. Doing something on your own is actually really difficult, especially if you’re doing everything.
Have a clear brand direction and stick to it. A name like ‘No Art’ allows much interpretation – your brand can be anything. Create it, stick to it and evolve it.
Andrew at Socially Sound 🧢
