- Genre: 'Dance'
- Release Date: '10th April 2020'
Our Rating:
While nations may be divided by politics, music can be a great unifier. And so it is that Nikavo is a collaboration between ‘Russian synth wizard’ Alexey Laduda and Swiss-born vocalist/producer Philip Winiger, who came together in San Francisco.
The electronic duo’s new single, ‘Yummy Miami’ is pitched as ‘an up-tempo positive dance/disco that is more in the territory of Minilogue, Disclosure, Hot Chip, Digitalism, Armin Van Burren or Tiesto’.
Timing counts for a lot: I’d probably have otherwise dismissed this as vapid and irritating: a bouncy, bubbling groove and a banal refrain – ‘I want to have some fun’ would be enough to make me watch to punch the nearest Hawaiian shirt-wearing hipster. And yeah, my gut still tells me that this hedonistic holiday feelgood stuff isn’t really for me as I recall trawling through reams of holiday snaps from virtual acquaintances on social media and watching promo vids for songs just like this every summer for the last 25 years… but now, since no-one’s going to be going to Miami and the prospect of getting near a beach or a bar seems so far off, I have a newfound sympathy for people who absolutely live for their holidays, and spend 50 weeks a year killing themselves in crap jobs just to get a break. And fun is important.
B-side ‘No TV’ packs a starker vibe, a steely technogoth groove providing the backdrop to a depersonalised robotix vocal. It’s quite a contrast, and it’s compelling, as well as demonstrating that Nikavo have range.
