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Preview Mon Jan 14 2013
Preview: Niki and the Dove @ Lincoln Hall, 1/18
When a Niki and the Dove song plays, it's almost impossible to discern how many different instruments and which ones in particular are at work on the track. "Is that a didgeridoo?" you might wonder as their echoing tune "The Birth of the Sun" fills your ear. All the catchy art-pop noise that emanates from Niki and the Dove, aka Malin Dahlström (vocals) and Gustaf Karlöf (keyboards), encapsulates the brilliance of Swedish pop engineering. It's not a didgeridoo. It's a mixer, and Niki and the Dove have mastered it ... at least on record. Their avant-garde take on pop is infectious like Abba, strange like Bjork, and modern like The Knife. It's also greater than the sum of these compared parts. It's more ambitious and hearing grandiose, drum-driven tracks like "DJ Ease My Mind" takes a listener to the edges of himself and begs him to dance until he becomes an unrepressed, blurry mess.
But can a Niki and the Dove live experience be all that and more with such a minimalist approach? Performing lofty songs with just a mixer and a vocalist (and perhaps a drum kit) instead of an orchestra doesn't have to be a compromised affair-- Robyn proves that a thousand times over. Such a complicated endeavor could very well succeed in the hands of these inventive outliers whose backgrounds in performance art will come in handy as they attempt to build an energetic yet eerie enough mood fit for their sinister dance grooves. A killer light show would certainly elevate things but if that isn't present, close your eyes, use your imagination, and enter into a dance-induced hallucination in which you and your neon shadow are dancing on the edge of the Grand Canyon together ... or something like that.
Nicki and the Dove bring their experimentation to Lincoln Hall on 1/18 at 9 p.m.. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased here.
