Alt Electronic Masterpiece Turn a Page
When an artist, whose previous releases have been ephemeral explorations into lo-fi electronic, changes direction, you never know what to expect. With Peter Nigido, it might come as a surprise to hear the genesis of a new kind of songwriter in your headphones.
Peter’s new release Turn a Page is not so lo-fi and replete with a seductive chorus, a disciplined structure and tantalising drops and transitions throughout. It highlights a persuasive transition from his two earlier releases Touch and Holding Hands With the Sun which sparked the first fire of interest in this Melbourne-born musician. Production aside, the tune itself stands up. The verses are meditative, reaching those sweetly sympathetic notes of resolution all hard working melodies arrive at.
But perhaps the pre-chorus is the real jolt, sounding like a fervent half-salute to some eighties-era pop deities The Human League, or Heaven 17, it is the tipping point of the song, an unexpected rush of finely crafted nuances coming together. It is perhaps easy to understand how this new track might polarise some of Nigido’s hardcore believers. It’s lush simplicity at first feels at odds with all of his previous works but his usual stamp of raw, unfeigned vocal antics tether it to a more natural place, proof of which is most evident in the break down, where the performance is matched by the lyric, and the production converges into a no man’s land of big space and tortured auditory clangs and clashes.
It is an appetising work, fulfilling the promise of any three-minute pop escape but there is a subtext of nebulous affiliations at work too. The musical landscape is cinematic without question but the exchange with the listener is more personal, tentatively intimate, with that big filmic focus narrowed by Nigido’s supplicating intonations and bemoaning vocal range. It will be interesting to see what lies ahead for Peter Nigido and whether his brand of experimental pop will gain enough momentum to claw at the feet of broad audience acceptance.
If this latest release is any indication I’m sure Nigido will garner as much attention as is needed to reach such heights.