Nanika – ‘Fears’ Review

What does Nanika sound like?

If Alison Goldfrapp met Trent Reznor at a party.

The review of ‘Fears’ by Nanika

French alternative trio Nanika release their first EP, ‘Fears’, on Friday, 19th June. Declaring themselves as a mixture of electro-rock and mutant pop, they cite Billie Eilish, Soulwax, and Justice as their main influences. I can hear the Eilish pulse, but I am personally reminded of Goldfrapp, Susanne Sundfør, and Huski (and most Melanie Garside projects). There’s an electro-trash sleeziness to their sound, like the party is falling apart in real time as you listen to the track. The merger of dance beats and electro-rock fuels the fire, and it makes for a great introduction to the band.

‘Afraid of the Dark’ opens the EP with a throbbing bass groove and straightforward beat for the first minute as Nanika establishes their groove. Then, after the first chorus, it’s as if the track swallows itself into a dark hole, as the synths, bass, and guitars deform like a soufflé into themselves and then hollow back out again. It is the hook that immediately grabbed my attention on first listen. The Aix-en-Provence-based trio goes hard and refuses to let up from that point on. Their fraught vocals wail like sirens. The guitars and synths sharpen like knives to cut through the noise to form a machine groove. It has a grotty club k-hole hellscape tone to it that requires repeat listens. It is rocktronica done very well.

‘Love Impostor’ takes the Susanne Sundfør and Royksopp approach to pop. Taking live drums, cinematic arpeggiators, Scandinavian pop strings, and curious chord progressions, Nanika create a superb song. It has that ‘Running to the Sea’ style of sounding panoramic and all-encompassing. Nanika keep it sounding bewildering, with blown-out and spacey chord progressions that veer off the usual progressions. Backed with electric guitar frameworks to give it an electro-rock edge, it’s the most approachable track of the three. ‘Kings of Entropy’ takes a similar approach to ‘Love Impostor’. It places the electronics up front for the first two and a half minutes before the track twists itself into glitchy, Goldfrapp circa Black Cherry sound, but more emo. The chord progression for the chorus has a clever upwards tension that lets it loop around and increase its intensity upon each go around. Nanika barks, “my anxiety increases exponentially”, as the instrumentation grows more wild. It’s a fantastic final third of the track, although I’d have personally loved it to have become more totally unhinged and truly embrace its dark side.

Taking the best elements from alternative Scandi-pop and electronica, and fusing them into a rockier sound, Nanika have set out on a promising and eventful debut. I love that these aren’t sub-three-minute electroclash or poppy ditties. Instead, the trio craft songs that morph into darker, more aggressive, or angular versions of themselves as emotions switch. That allows five-minute tracks to stay fresh and vibrant, and Nanika rewards you with decent payoffs every time. Ones to watch.

Recommended track: Love Impostor

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