nihiti - other people's memories

In my cynical and overly critical opinion, we had a shitty week in terms of new music. None of the albums sent to us this week got my vote, so I'm not going to dedicate a lot of time explaining why these bands suck when one quick listen will suffice. This band was actually the best of the week by far, and perhaps the biting tone of the following review is somewhat undeserved. But hey, if I want to be a good music critic I have to be an asshole, right? I'm just taking out my frustration on the only band worth commenting on...last week was a great week for us, and this Thanksgiving week just fell short of anything at all remarkable. Oh well. Here goes:

nihiti is so cool that they don’t even use capital letters. if you know how to come up with one marginally intriguing chord progression and play it unwaveringly for three minutes to an off-time gaggle of misguided, fake bongo-based percussion and add swirly-girly effects, you know how to impress hipsters, so fuck grammar, right? wrong. i go to the most shamelessly hip college in the universe, and i’m nowhere near impressed. some of the chord progressions, basslines, and percussion rhythms are somewhat interesting, but nothing pulls me in because the songs lack substance. there is nothing for me to sink my teeth into; there’s no juice. this album is distinctive from other electronic albums in that the tones are mostly natural and the instrumentation includes real tools, but that’s just about the only positive aspect of other people's memories. there is absolutely no attention to songwriting. that’s my biggest bugaboo. if you’re going to shit all over Steve Grammar’s grave with your name and album title, make sure your music doesn't suck;