Described primarily as "chillwave", this tends to put him in a similar class to Beach House or The XX which after listening to his material, he clearly is not. Niva retains a much more solid base to his songs, diverting from the "cover everything in reverb to create atmosphere" school of production and instead using instruments and melodies, the old-fashioned and best way to write a song.
This is not to say he doesn't use his fair share of reverb, as best demonstrated on my Track of 2010 (too early for that?maybe not) Ghost In My Head.
After playing Ghost in My Head to someone recently, it was described as quintessentially me, which makes me actually quite proud. And it's true, the song has everything that I love about a good chillout track, a twinkly melody to compliment the verse vocal, all round excellent production with a strong beat and a bit of call and response in the chorus. To top it all off, there's a chopped up vocal sample which anyone whose read this blog before will know I adore.
I think what makes me love the track the most however is that it's really very simple and is just an excellent song. Good songwriting rarely gets credit, especially on the world wide web where everybody can hype any track, despite it's standard because "he produced it in his bedroom and it sounds massive".
Ghost In My Head is a great pop song, verse chorus verse chorus end, 2:30 minutes of brilliance. True, there are little touches that you don't even realise, such as the words "Like a ghost in my head" in the chorus smothered in reverb making them sound...well ghostly.
There are also plenty of clicks and whirrs hidden deep in the mix to add unnoticed texture and that attention to detail, that craft of adding to a song without the listener even realising, is truly a talent.
To top things off, Niva has announced that upcoming EP Feverish Dreams, due later this year, will be released on ultra-cool london label Something In Construction.
I can 100% guarantee that I'll still be listening to these songs when that EP arrives at the rate that I am now.
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