Album Review: RIKI - 'Riki'

“Welcome to the 1980s,” Riki doesn’t say on her self-titled album, but she may as well have done. This synth-pop debut feels a bit of a throwback in many ways, a reimagining of British and European underground music from your parents’ era.

Riki is the nom de guerre of Niff Nawor, a Californian apparently prominent in the local deathrock scene. She ignores the shouty stuff here, instead stating that she wants the listener to “witness their own rebirth, a rhythm universal”.

Lead single Napoleon is the standout track, a disco-dancey number all full of glitterballs and blurred eyes that wouldn’t be out of place in an East London indie club. It’s followed up immediately by Bose Lugen which, for unknown reasons, is sung entirely in German but is worth your time. Later on in the album Earth Song is a mesmerising pastiche while Spirit of Love is a sort of fun-industrial-funk.

The album raises a number of questions: were the 1980s a happier time? Why is one of the songs in German? And what does ‘rhythm universal’ even mean? Giving it a spin probably won’t give you an answer but its worth a listen if you’re after a modern update on synth-pop.

Words by Thomas Worley

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