Nikko, 'Gold & Red' Cd launch
Nikko’s sophomore album, Gold & Red, offers the kind of sugar-stabbing love songs that are as grand as they are honest. As the seemingly stoic, hard as granite protagonist opens and closes the heart like a fist, you feel like some kind of voyeur listening to the confessions of a square-jawed romantic. Hägar The Horrible has a heart etc.
Washing out most of their post-rock colours, Gold & Red pays more attention to elegant songwriting than colossal peaks. There’s still a mass of movement and dynamics, however the arrangements seem to swell and repress with a clearer purpose. Layers are soaked in the grit and sweat of old western films, providing the perfect brooding bed for Ryan Potter’s vocals, never smothering the story but framing it.
‘About the Spirit’ is bent balladry at its most submissive, while songs such as ‘The Sun Rises’ and ‘Losing the Meaning’ tangle melancholic drones with a warm slow burn. With descriptions of the murkier side of a modern day romance, Gold & Red will suit those needing a lesson in the language of heartache.
Launching their album at The Waiting Room, 11 Browning St, West End, Sat Jun 23, $15, with Rational Academy and Idylls
WIN
Thanks to Tenzenmen, we have a dbl to give away. To enter, email brisbane.win@thethousands.com.au with the subject line 'my nikko is gold' 
Australian Competitions Club
