Few artists take the time to shine a light on the subtext, to peer behind the curtain. Niki Niki are among them.
This trio play music that is urgent, dreamy, synthetic, and all the while overflowing with feeling. Draped over a lattice of intricate, looping minimalist electro, this eleven track debut album is on a hunt for raw emotion. Defined by an androgynous pop sensibility, Niki Niki are a bit like David Bowie and Brian Eno circa the Berlin trilogy, or the English New-Romantics of the 80’s (Visage, Eurythmics, et al.). It's that kind of digital soul music; lustrous, opalescent, and thoroughly alluring. Imagine Fever Ray (The Knife) helping themselves to the the instrumental arrangements of the XX, or James Blake being suddenly recruited into Portishead. You can also discern some familiar sonic landscapes, musical environments already vaguely explored by other fellow dreamers, from the Cocteau Twins to Dead Can Dance, via M83. Nevertheless, on a first listen, Niki Niki avoid the trap of sounding quite like anyone else in particular. This could be down to a subtle collaboration with producer Apollo Noir (A.K.A. Rémi Sauzedde). One of Tigersushi Record’s latest discoveries, he’s already done some notable work with Yanis, not to mention Jeanne Added.
« Absence » is a singular record, blanketed by frosty keyboards and imaginative arrangements. Beyond time and place, it provides a moment of tender respite amidst the chaos outside.
So fall under the spell of the echoing, futuristic-western stylings of « Glorious Dayz ». Slow-dance to « Absence », a hymnal tailor-made for plush, velvety dance floors. Make love with your eyes closed, and be taken unawares by the sexy « Ungenderness ». Defy the laws of gravity with the soap bubble that is « Nothing Never Dies »…
In short, pull back that curtain and take a peek.
