Cerebral and experimental electroheads
Who They?
Turin duo Niagara are making waves (and the basis for some stellar puns). The Italian twosome consists of Davide Tomat and Gabriele Ottino, seasoned musicians with an impressive collaborative record. They’ve both been members of rock band NAMB and improvisational group Gemini Excerpt. Their latest effort melds electronic music with conventionally disparate genres. Dubbed “popstars in waiting”, Niagara are set for big things.
Why Niagara?
Alongside desserts and sports cars, Italy can now add self-reflexive, psychedelic electro-pop to its export catalogue. They would need more adjectives too, as Niagara’s two albums also feature EDM, folk music, eastern melodies and a whole lot more.
Too convoluted? Almost, but Niagara keep it focused with unifying themes. Their latest album, ‘Don’t Take It Personally’, dissects “the ongoing struggle to balance our desire to develop and exploit technology against the need to make technology more sympathetic to nature”. Very meta.
Tell Us More
They’re near impossible to Google for obvious reasons, but once you pinpoint Niagara online, there’s a lot to scroll through. Soundcloud, for instance, reveals links with Liars and Fennesz. In fact, their upcoming release, the ‘Vanillacola Re-Bottled’ three-tracker, is their ‘Vanillacola’ single plus two remixes by Fennesz and XIII.
Niagara are also very good to their fans, sharing recording experiments and pictures via Facebook and Vine. And if that’s not enough, you can see them performing in the flesh, although you’d have to be pretty dedicated because they’re only touring Italy this summer. Bring us back a sports car!
‘Vanillacola Re-Bottled’ is released on Monotreme
