tUnE-yArDs – Nikki Nack

It’s kind of amazing that Merrill Garbus – a.k.a. tUnE-yArDs – has gotten as successful as she has....
tUnE-yArDs - Nikki Nack
7.2 4AD
2014 

tUnE-yArDs - Nikki Nack

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It’s kind of amazing that Merrill Garbus – a.k.a. tUnE-yArDs – has gotten as successful as she has. Her music has more in common with African drum circles than anything in the indie-sphere. She uses instruments even the hippest of hipsters wouldn’t think of – and then loops them live. She doesn’t even give in to the beauty fixation that every female artist has to face sooner or later. Just look at how she spells her band name! Yet she was discovered with 2009 debut BiRd-BrAiNs and established with 2011’s w h o k i l l (QRO review). And for newest Nikki Nack, Garbus takes even a further step away from the catchier moments of w h o k i l l.

Nikki Nack begins with “Find a New Way”, and while the record doesn’t completely deviate from Garbus’ singular way with complicated beats, she often tends more towards the disconcerting, even disturbing. There are stark songs like “Hey Life” and even neo-tropical in the following “Sink-O”, but they more make you sit up and take notice of your surroundings, rather than lie back and have fun. She has a way with rhythm throughout the album, maybe best done when she manages to pull off being disjointed on “Left Behind”.

Now, this is still a tUnE-yArDs release, so there are still oddities like the African sing-along “Water Fountain” or the distance nonsense voices “Why Do We Dine On the Tots?”, and some work better than others (like “Water Fountain” over “Tots?” or the lower-key, tech meandering “Look Around”). But even if there are few succeeding commercially at Garbus’ style, that hasn’t prevented her from pushing further.

tUnE–yArDs – Left Behind

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