Bikini

The oddly named Bikini are the product of a long gestating collaboration between Olivier Olivier and Nigel Diamond. The two met at private school in Victoria and began making music together after graduating. Singer Olivier (the son of a well-regarded Indian poet) creates melodies from his poetry while producer/knob tweaker Diamond buries them under thumping beats and shimmering analog noise. Obscured vocals are the trend du jour currently, but based on the rough delivery audible on "American Mourning," the technique sounds born from a necessity to cover up the band's weaker elements than any bandwagon hitching. Individually, all six songs work both as floor-fillers and mini-headphone masterpieces. Presented as a whole, they are more akin to sketches than complete thoughts, arbitrarily starting and stopping, with little build up. Given that this is an initial blast though, it's a safe bet subsequent work should offer a bit more cohesion. Still, there's more than enough going on to compensate for the EP's shortcomings.