Ricky Eat Acid - Three Love Songs - VINYL LP

Riki is the Los Angeles based dark synth-pop outfit commandeered by the mysterious Niff Nawor, a visual artist and musician active in the deathrock / anarcho-punk scenes of the California bay area (formerly a member of Crimson Scarlet), before founding her solo endeavor as Riki in 2017. Niff's desire to explore her own sound manifested in the recording of the Hot City cassette tape in 2017, which featured Chelsey Crowley of Crimson Scarlet, Skot Brown of Phantom Limbs and Pedaof Doomed to Extinction. Released on Commodity Tapes and later reissued on vinyl by the well-regarded Symphony of Destruction tag, Riki followed the of the single with several small tours and festival dates, performing with such acts as Light Asylum, Black Marble, and Trisomie 21. For her self-titled debut album for Dais, Riki explores courage, physicality, and romance across eight timeless synth pop anthems. Produced and engineered by hardware-based synthesist Matia Simovich of INHALT, influences and ideas are worn proudly without deviating from fresh and daring electro-pop territory. Nostalgic cues can be heard ranging from Neue Deutsch Welle, early Adrian Sherwood productions, classic ZYX Italo Disco, Japanese Visual Kei and even classic new wave/pop like Pat Benatar, Kate Bush, and early Madonna.

West coast new romantic icon Riki returns with her 2nd simulacrum of pitch-perfect synth-pop, aptly titled for the precious substance it is Gold. Inspired by notions of symbolic power, letting go, and transmutable realms of the heart, the album further refines her rare gift for making swooning melancholia as anthemic as it atmospheric. Working with Telefon Tel Aviv co-founder Josh Eustis at his Pasadena studio, the sessions unfolded fluidly and fruitfully, focusing on Inchquieter momentsInch and refining the record's palette and voice. Occasional interruption from a nearby flock of wild parrots infused a mood of California dreaming, purple sunsets dissolving into deepening neon night.Like all the most elusive pop, Riki's songcraft is simultaneously direct and oblique, dynamic and detached, shifting from sparkling chorus to elliptical outro according to it's own poetic logic. She characterizes her lyrical muse as Inchvery much what's going on in my life, things I wanted to say but didn't have the .Inch This subcurrent of dream fulfillment animates the melodies with a specificity and immediacy that transcends her pantheon of 80's influences from Saâda Bonaire and Strawberry Switchblade to Bryan Ferry, Bananarama, and beyond. Gold skews less dance floor than her instant classic 2020 debut but taken as a collection it's equally stirring, stylish, and exquisitely produced. Evocatively layered arrangements of drum machinery, sequencer, fretless bass, grey sky guitar, saxophone, and FX, anchored by Riki's singular voice, alternately widescreen and wounded, yearning beyond time for ecstasies both fleeting and forever InchThought I knew you, but you've gone far away / it's not in your nature to stay / but the thought that I need you, grows stronger every day / the colors begin / to change.Inch

2019 . The Jewels began as an ongoing late-night conversation while on the road for two years as the touring rhythm section for various artists, bassist Derek Nievergelt and drummer Adrian Harpham spent endless hours on buses and planes philosophizing about the ideal record. They talked about David Axelrod, Quincy Jones, and the Beastie Boys. They talked about Led Zeppelin, P-Funk, and Paul McCartney. They talked about soundtracks to 60s sci-fi, 70s soft porn, and 80s cop shows. Already transitioning from life as a gig monster to producing and writing, Nievergelt realized he had a mission to turn this philosophizing into reality. The Jewels is the culmination of that mission.