It’s a little incredible to discover that Portland rockers Nice Nice’s latest release Extra Wow was created by only two pairs of hands – that of a drummer and a guitarist. As a record that simply overflows with tumultuous, snarling symphonies of noise and other-wordly tribal mixes, its larger than life sound certainly doesn’t sound like it was borne of a mere two musicians. Extra Wow is strongly reminiscent of electro stalwarts Animal Collective, but with easier to follow beats. This record will either make you daydream technicolour worms, or make your teeth grind.
A blend of guitar drone and tinny drums provide the skeleton of this album, giving Extra Wow a lo-fi feel that, essentially, gives them the green light to make as much racket as they like. Which they do. The songs are then fleshed out by with varying licks of psychedelia, crunches of distortion or electro splash.
A Way We Glow stands as an entry point for Extra Wow’s true experimentation to begin. As it veers away from the domineering lo-fi, the track taps into an otherworldly tribal beat with Animal Collective type chanting in tow. As its name suggests, On And On continues in this vein as it seemingly warps and speeds up its predecessor track into something that sounds like an acid trip jungle rave.
The rest of the album unfolds as a geometric pound-out of electro songs. The vocals become less and less present, until they are nearly weaned out. Other highlights include the stoner prog of Make It Gold and the wonderfully tranquil New Cascade, which despite sounding like a Deep Forest song somehow made it onto a record full of gritty grunge. Well, now we know: a Japanese shamisen thrown in works every time.
Miranda Freeman

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR E-NEWSLETTER!