Niki & The Dove - The Drummer

There must be something in the water in Scandinavia as they consistently seem to produce wonderfully exciting and gifted pop groups and performers. Sweden’s electro dance duo Niki & The Dove are the latest and perhaps the best exponents, and ‘The Drummer’ EP offers a tantalising glimpse into their mysterious world as they take their captivating pop sound to a far deeper and darker place.

The EP is a concept piece of sorts with all the songs based around the desert, and there is a focus throughout on the elemental and the spiritual; while this may sound incredibly pretentious, the music is aligned to such pure and thrilling pop melodies that it is impossible not to be enthralled by it. The title track is ushered in on some huge, pounding beefy drums and features lots of big synth blasts. The best way to describe this track is futuristic disco as the insanely danceable beat mirrors Malin Dahlstroms lyrics, ‘The pounding of my heart, it’s what makes me human.’

The pace drops for the rather more understated ‘Last Night’ which allows Dahlstroms soft and soulful voice to come to the fore. ‘Mother Protect’ is the centrepiece of the EP and is central to the theme. Niki & The Dove certainly do have a fondness for animals and nature, and this time Dahlstrom compares herself to an eagle, “My heart is like an eagle, I love to fall from the sky, it’s so beautiful.” The intensely rhythmic, tribal backing works extremely well here and there are all manner of sounds to be heard, including even pan pipes, which are very rarely heard in a pop record, yet Niki & The Dove manage to make it work.

The sultry ‘Manon’ must be the sexiest pop record to be written about a natural disaster, as apparently it is a response to this years Tsunami in Japan and features oblique references to ‘Sundogs’ and ‘The child of the desert.’ Despite the lyrics being baffling there is a real transcendental quality. The EP ends with the stunning near instrumental ‘The Birth Of The Sun’, and its twinkling synths make for a wonderfully ethereal finish.

What is striking about Niki & The Dove is how warm and welcoming their sound is. While a lot of electronic pop can be icy and detached, ‘The Drummer’ is full of warmth and is an extremely immersive listen. This may be an EP that features more than its fair share of strangeness and intrigue, but at its heart it is a dance floor filling, fantastic record that shows pop can be both insanely catchy and challenging at the same time.