No Mana
No Mana | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jordan Orcaz |
| Origin | Southern California, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupations | |
| Years active | 2015–present |
| Labels |
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Jordan Orcaz,[1] known professionally as No Mana[1] is an electronic music producer and DJ based in Southern California.[2] Active under the No Mana alias since 2015, Orcaz has released music through deadmau5's mau5trap record label, issuing a succession of two-track EPs before his debut studio album Secret Level in 2020.[1] He subsequently signed to Monstercat, releasing his second studio album I Contain Flashing Images in 2024.[3] Known early in his career for an anonymous visual persona built around pixel art, Orcaz also produces his own cover artwork, music videos, and live audiovisual sets.[2][4]
Early life
[edit]Orcaz was raised in Mission Viejo, California, a city in Orange County that he has described as quiet and family-oriented.[5] He has said that music was present throughout his childhood: by his account his grandfather was a guitarist and singer who worked in vinyl mastering at Capitol Records and arranged his first piano lessons at around the age of six.[5] Orcaz played the viola in his middle-school orchestra and later performed in a high-school garage band, after which he stepped away from music for a period before returning to it by teaching himself production in FL Studio.[5]
By his own account, Orcaz took up pixel art as a hobby several years before he began producing music, and also pursued photography, which he has said predated his music-making; he set photography aside during high school and returned to it later to create visuals for touring.[5][6] He has described himself as drawn to work that could be done on a computer, encompassing graphic design, illustration, and music production.[5]
Career
[edit]Early beginnings (2012–2015)
[edit]Orcaz began producing electronic music around 2012 in collaboration with a friend, with the intention of forming a duo; the partnership dissolved after a few months and both parties pursued separate projects.[7] At the time, Orcaz was studying computer science at college. Upon obtaining a manager and beginning to generate income from his music, he left both his studies and his employment to pursue music full-time, describing live performances beginning approximately a year later as the point at which his career gathered momentum.[7]
2015–2017: No Mana and mau5trap
[edit]The No Mana alias was established in 2015 with the release of the debut EP 1UP, the first of fourteen two-track EPs Orcaz had released under the name by early 2020; that year he signed to deadmau5's mau5trap label, which had backed his music since 2015.[1]
In September 2016, No Mana released the Game Over EP on mau5trap. According to The Nocturnal Times, the six-track release incorporated elements of progressive house, trance, and bass music, featured a collaboration with Zashanell with guest vocals from Cafcat, Fader Lima, and Jessica Ess, and was followed by appearances on deadmau5's Beats 1 radio programme and at festivals including Electric Daisy Carnival.[8] In April 2017, he performed a back-to-back set with BlackGummy for a mau5trap takeover of Mixmag's streamed concert series The Lab LA.[2]
2020–2021: Secret Level and the Electromag compilation
[edit]No Mana released his debut studio album, Secret Level, on mau5trap in February 2020.[1] Reviewing the release for Magnetic Magazine, Ryan Middleton characterised No Mana as one of mau5trap's most prominent acts of recent years and described the record as combining gritty electro with warbling melodies and inventive songwriting.[9] The 11-track record showcased Orcaz's progressive melodic style alongside 8-bit synthesiser textures and featured collaborations including the chiptune musician Chipzel on the title track and EDDIE on "Fragile Human"; Orcaz and EDDIE had previously worked together on "Untitled Forever" after meeting during EDDIE's trip to Southern California.[1][9] The album's release was accompanied by the "Secret Something Tour."[1] Orcaz has said that the momentum generated by Secret Level was curtailed by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.[4]
In 2021, No Mana curated Electromag, a 19-track compilation released on mau5trap that Magnetic Magazine described as an effort to capture the spirit of the late-2000s electro house era, featuring contributions from artists including Wolfgang Gartner, James Egbert, and Tommy Trash alongside No Mana himself.[10] Orcaz characterised the project as an effort to celebrate and foster a community around the genre.[4] Associated singles included "Can't Say No," a collaboration with Tommy Trash featuring Trash's own vocals, and "The Original," recorded with Wolfgang Gartner.[10][11][12] Orcaz has also recounted that a remix of "As the Rush Comes" he had originally produced for personal use received an official release on the Positiva label after the track became a regular fixture in his live sets.[4]
2022–present: Monstercat and I Contain Flashing Images
[edit]No Mana signed to Monstercat around September 2022 and debuted on the label with the single "Yesterday."[13][4] The following month he released a second Monstercat single, "Out of the Dark," a techno- and electro house-inflected track that was later integrated into the video game Rocket League.[13] Orcaz described the track as an attempt to render his conception of what angels would sound like.[13] In 2022 he completed a headlining tour of more than 20 dates titled "Loud Music. Flashing Images."[6]
On May 30, 2024, No Mana released his second studio album, I Contain Flashing Images, through Monstercat.[3][7] The 15-track album merged grungy techno with electro house and featured collaborations with SOFI, Leyla Diamondi, vowl., Feed Me, EMSKI, Voicians, Bertie Scott, Isis Rose, and Dualistic.[3] The self-made artwork drew on illustrations of stars, swords, and eyes in a style CULTR described as simultaneously minimalist and maximalist.[3] Orcaz has said the album's title derived from a warning frame he had been required to attach to his video content, which he adopted as a permanent thematic component of his artistic identity.[3][7] The same year, Magnetic Magazine profiled the production of his Monstercat house track "City2City" as part of its "How It Was Made" series.[14]
Musical style and artistry
[edit]Orcaz has described his sound as rooted primarily in dance music from the period 2000–2010, with a particular affinity for trance and electro house from that era.[7] Mixmag characterised his music as harking back to early deadmau5, alternating between ethereal vocals and electro builds.[2] Writing for Magnetic Magazine in 2024, Will Vance praised an unusually cohesive union of sound, visual style, and aesthetic across his output and described his recent work as displaying a "swagger-filled maturity."[14] The Nocturnal Times described his sound as encompassing tech house, progressive, and classic trance,[11] while his later Monstercat releases incorporated grungy techno textures alongside those electro house foundations.[3] In discussing the electro house genre, Orcaz has articulated a goal of modernising rather than merely replicating the sound of a decade earlier, and of cultivating a networked community of producers working within that tradition.[4]
Early in his career, No Mana presented himself anonymously behind an 8-bit cartoon avatar rather than under his own identity.[2][8] Orcaz produces his own cover artwork, music videos, and live audiovisual sets using pixel art, working principally in the software Aseprite.[4] He has cited anime frame-blending animation techniques and the graphical styles of early Final Fantasy instalments as formative visual influences, and counts artists Kadabura and Paul Robertson among his contemporary inspirations; he has said his interest in pixel art dates to 2006.[4] In the studio, Orcaz has described working primarily within Ableton Live—including heavy use of its built-in sampler—with a production approach built around multi-layered kick drums and incremental sound design, and occasional use of Eurorack hardware modules.[15][7][14] For the I Contain Flashing Images sessions he has said he worked on ATC SCM25A studio monitors and Audeze LCD-X headphones.[7]
Personal life
[edit]Orcaz is based in Mission Viejo, California, having briefly relocated to Chula Vista, California in 2021 before returning.[5] He has described himself as a "studio rat" who is most productive working from his own studio, and counts photography and video games among his hobbies; he has cited the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series and other Square Enix titles as influences on his visual work.[5][6][4] He has characterised himself as sentimental and drawn to nostalgia, and has attributed the recurring themes of memory, space, and time in his music to a longstanding fascination with large-scale physics.[6]
Discography
[edit]Studio albums
[edit]| Title | Year | Label |
|---|---|---|
| Secret Level | 2020 | Mau5trap |
| I Contain Flashing Images | 2024 | Monstercat |
Compilation albums
[edit]- Electromag (2021), curated compilation[4]
Extended plays
[edit]Singles
[edit]| Title | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| "Lethargy" | 2016 | [8] |
| "Can't Say No" | 2021 | with Tommy Trash[11] |
| "The Original" | 2021 | with Wolfgang Gartner[12] |
| "Yesterday" | 2022 | Monstercat debut[4][13] |
| "Out of the Dark" | 2022 | [13] |
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Sunkel, Cameron (February 15, 2020). "Mau5trap Artist No Mana Releases Debut Album, Secret Level". EDM. Retrieved June 4, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Lee, Valerie (April 26, 2017). "Mau5trap in The Lab LA with Feed Me and BlackGummy b2b No Mana". Mixmag. Retrieved June 4, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Tryon, Oliver (May 29, 2024). "No Mana Delivers Grungy & Epic New Album 'I Contain Flashing Images'". CULTR. Retrieved June 4, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Catching Up With Electro House Phenom No Mana | EDM Identity". September 5, 2022. Retrieved June 4, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Willy Joy (host) (June 11, 2024). No Mana (Podcast). Back to Back. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 Brown, Christopher (January 12, 2023). ""A disgusting desire for more." In conversation with No Mana". C-Heads Magazine. Retrieved June 4, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Callwood, Brett (July 15, 2024). "Hit the Decks! It's Electro-house producer No Mana". Music Connection. Retrieved June 4, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 Anderson, Toni (September 11, 2016). "No Mana Releases 'Game Over EP' on mau5trap". The Nocturnal Times. Retrieved June 4, 2026.
- 1 2 Middleton, Ryan (February 14, 2020). "The Director's Cut: No Mana – Secret Level". Magnetic Magazine. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
- 1 2 Middleton, Ryan (October 1, 2021). "Liner Notes Track-By-Track Album Breakdown: No Mana Presents: Electromag [Mau5trap]". Magnetic Magazine. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
- 1 2 3 O'Keefe, Caroline (July 2, 2021). "No Mana & Tommy Trash "Can't Say No" to the Return of Electro House". The Nocturnal Times. Retrieved June 4, 2026.
- 1 2 Marcano, Maria (August 3, 2021). "No Mana Recruits Wolfgang Gartner for Forthcoming Project with "The Original"". The Nocturnal Times. Retrieved June 4, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Belbin, Carlie (October 6, 2022). "Techno and Electro House Intersect In No Mana's Stunning Single, "Out of the Dark"". EDM. Retrieved June 4, 2026.
- 1 2 3 Vance, Will (June 6, 2024). "How It Was Made: No Mana – City2City (Monstercat)". Magnetic Magazine. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
- ↑ Orcaz, Jordan (February 13, 2020). "No Mana Leaks His Secrets To Cooking Up Explosive 128 BPM Weapons". DJ Times. Archived from the original on August 17, 2025. Retrieved June 4, 2026.