Niva – Feverish Dreams EP

The sun is shining and the weather isn’t particularly of a saccharine quality. Yet, after the morose and biting winter months, merriment under the guise of festival season in tandem with vacations are on the horizon once more. The juxtaposition of lyricism that appears immersed in the desolate and bleak sphere alongside melodious apparatus inadvertently declares direct correlation between the seasons and the mind state.

Feverish Dreams is akin to a captivating knotted floor textile with an underlay of profundity by Christian Niva (formerly of “The Quietboy” pseudonym) a.k.a. Niva. Having fastened his heavenly experimental and atmospheric penchant onto the likes of contemparies The Concretes and California’s Blackbird Blackbird, the Stockholm native has leisurely kept the soup bubbling since last summer (that’s a bloody long slug on the stove) with rich samples to placate the suitably plump blogginista.

‘Transforma’ is a driving opener laced with the sentimental vocoder refrain “I don’t mind you being here”, the slowing burning acoustic and echoic synths – an early indication of the tranquil which Niva impeccably exhumes. The arpeggiated, earthly beginnings of ‘Ghost In My Head’ quickly rise into shuffling 2-step snare territory along with glitch bell beats and is lifted in angelic fashion. ‘Lost Patience’ is an extended cut on the EP where simmering percussion is the basis for a techno-inspired whisper about relinquished romance. ‘You Never Said Goodbye’ harks Niva in a parallel manner to Miike Snow’s ‘Silvia’.

The latter part of Feverish Dreams continues to uphold the dreampop archetype at a slower and obligatory tempo which becomes unashamedly banal. ‘Boy From The Sun’ commences with an ambient soundscape that samples a lost wailing toddler on earth (a probable inner monologue captured from a forlorn daydream) as the Swede croons over a languid electrohouse backbeat with crisp claps and soft guitar evocative of a crestfallen Tiga. Electronic resonance is blissfully omnipresent via transient reverb, hazy tones and sweeping pads on ‘Dizzyeyes’. The soulful pitch bending 8-bit platform of ‘Drowning In The Mud’ compliments Niva’s layered hum and synthstring sensibilities.

The EP title is an ode to visions of reverie and the Swedish spokesman has a quaint harmony which echoes over measured electro, intelligent pop and hushed shoegaze. Niva appears to engage in recreation unknowingly whilst honing his craft – this intrinsic quality gives greater scope for a debut LP in the not too distant future.