(Independent)

Local indie post-rock that is mostly brilliant.

Fists opens with quiet, twinkling guitars, and a vocal baritone that drones like a young, weary, non-literary Nick Cave. A poignant sample (a monologue on nature’s savagery, by German art house director Herzog Werner) precedes the violent chorus, which is reminiscent of Explosions In The Sky. The instrumental Break And Enter then starts with a slow beat, and cascading guitar passes, while the bass subtly reinforces the song’s growing tension, and sense of foreboding. When soft predictably turns to loud, the delayed lead guitar lines strafe like tracer fire, scarring an imaginary sky. Cymbal crashes and guitar freak-outs eventually bring the song to a close.

Fell Away changes the feel of the EP by revisiting vocals, but after Break And Enter, the melodic limitations of an untrained, sonically dry human voice become all too obvious. The song drags from start to finish, weighed down by a dreary monotone that doesn’t match the dynamics of the complex instrumental layers beneath it.

The apocalyptic closer, E Song, rounds-out the EP. The song is achingly short, and could have used another few minutes to tease out its structural potential. It is indicative of the band as whole, whose burgeoning post-rock brilliance is curtailed unwelcome by rock and pop conventions. The instrumental aspect of Nikko is cleverly dynamic and genuinely moving, but the songs feel restricted by their short, predictable structures and vocals that honestly sabotage the melodic interest, and detract from the ambiguous emotional depth that the band otherwise convey. It’s still a great EP though, and despite my nitpicking, I like it a lot.

JAKEB SMITH

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