biographical info
Prince Nifty, also know as Nifty, Nif Dee – among many others – is the project of Matt Smith, a Toronto based musician and current president of Blocks Recording Club. The project is an experiment in expectations. Often you will find harmony next to dissonance, folk next to noise, songwriting beside soulful house and many places in and around and between. Smith was formerlly a member of the now disbanded Les Mouches, the early home of the songwriting skill of Owen Pallett, and he continues to work with Pallett intermittently (he helped to record and sang on Pallett's Heartland, and played a 3 night series of shows at the Kitchen as Owen Pallett and Matt Smith FfIiNnAaLl FfAaNnTtAaSsYy).
To date there are 2 releases, The first (Nifty's) A Sparrow! A Sparrow! is a showcase of the multi directional musical mind of Smith and ranges from shaffle soul musings to full out Scott Walker-esque aural assaults. The second and most recent release is a time based recording experiment where Smith gives himself 5 days to write, record, mix, master and manufacture an EP. The Experiment was a great success and the resulting tracks can be heard on Instant Nif-D Volume 1. There are other unreleased works for theatre and film and video. Smith also records and produces his and others' music out of 6 Nassau, a beautiful recording studio he helped to build in Kensington Market.
Currently, there is a new recording project under way which will be ready for the fall of 2010.