Sunday 11 December 2011

Niki & The Dove - DJ, Ease My Mind


On December 5th the BBC announced the nominees for the BBC Sound of 2012, with the final shortlisted five being announced in early January.  The Gizzle will be reviewing each of the fifteen longlisted nominees leading up to the final announcement.

Imagine The Knife mixed with Delerium's Silence and Bjork's Hyperballad and you get the idea for this one.

Niki & The Dove are, of course, from Sweden.  Scandinavia really is the home to high quality synth pop, (what with Robyn, The Knife, When Saints Go Machine and Jonathan Johansson to name a few in recent years) and this band continue the tradition with aplomb.  The duo consists of Gustaf Karlöf and Malin Dahlström, who formed in 2010 and released two EPs this past year - 'The Fox' and 'The Drummer'. 

Their style is typical of their peers, yet favours grating synths and a darker tone of composition.  DJ, Ease My Mind, their debut single, has a real dancehall flavour, mixing trance synths with Dahlström's distinctive vocal and industrial percussion.  Their latest EP, 'The Drummer', has a brighter, neon-pop feel combined with instrumental interlude tracks, but the quirky production remains. 

Niki & The Dove may struggle to beat the established competition in the UK music industry - Robyn especially.  Yet their distinctive sound demands your attention.

4/5

Listen:  Two EP's, 'The Fox' and 'The Drummer' are both available now.

Watch:  The band have no UK tour dates for the new year as of yet.