Hailing from Jimbolia – a small town in Romania, Dani and Robert are the DJ and production duo who call themselves NTFO. Why NTFO? Well, before they started to create music, they used to perform as a DJ act in their hometown club “Dolce Vita”, each under a different moniker – NTQ (Dani) and Fort (Robert). After a few years of spinning the decks in clubs here and there, the boys knew they had to take a step further into the electronic music industry and so they decided to produce their own unique sound, the sound of colorful deep house music, the sound of NTFO. The name is simply a result of their former aliases combined, using two letters from each.
Bursting onto the scene in January 2010 with the release of their first vinyl album, their records began to fly higher than expected, landing in the hands of some of the world’s best electronic music producers: “Allure” caught the eye of the Diynamic chief, Solomun who later on added them to his DIY Agency, while “Troops” entered Marco Carola’s sets and “Filter” peaked at #2 on Richie Hawtin’s beatport chart in 2009. Spring blossomed with the release of a new EP, hooked with three original tracks and a remix of Czubala Marcin from 8 bit, when in autumn the pair contributed to H.O.S.H.’s “Cash the Chord” EP with their own remix of the track, besides Audiojack and 360.
2011 brings Rhadow into the picture along with the “Conclusions” EP released on Sintope Digital Records, however in February, together with Optick, NTFO signed “Tremble” at Sintope Vinyl. The EP encompassed remixes from Alex Piccini & Older, Mucky Pups and Rhadow. Even before its official launch, the material was already supported by leading names in the industry like Joseph Capriati, Loco Dice, Lauhaus, Audiojack, Butch and Tom Budden. As the fall came again, Dani and Robert threw a new track on Diynamic records, “Feelings” – perhaps one of their hottest, most loveable tracks until now.
In February 2012 the much-hyped duo produced another stupefying track, in collaboration with H.O.S.H. and Malonda. “High”, featured on Diynamic 055 obviously lifted them up, whereas with its 58th announcement, the Hamburg-based label presented a three-track “Various Artists” EP which exposed “Nobody Else” – a collab between NTFO and Netherlands export Karmon. With its bouncy bassline and rhythmic pulse highlighted by spherically playful notes, the melody takes you on a wonderful journey, casting a spell over your dancing soul.
With the beginning of 2013, NTFO haughtily announced the launch of a new label, Jargon, a sublabel for Sintope Digital. The imprint looks to further showcase the latter of underground music, creating a sound which Robert describes as “rather old-school house, or maybe even techno”. Moreover, this year the boys prepare “Slagare vol.4”, another outstanding EP in collaboration with Rhadow (due out in April). In spring we’ll also see the first drop on Jargon, besides another one of their top-notch productions for Diynamic.
Romania’s electronic music industry is growing and NTFO are flowering! Keep an eye out for the two, they could be spinning around the country, or in Germany, the UK, Netherlands, Switzerland or even Brazil!
