***TERROR BIRD is the songs of Vancouver artist NIKKI NEVER. Beginning with naive but affecting songs hammered into primitive recording apparatus and released on handdubbed cassette releases, Terror Bird soon attracted the attention of intrepid independent labels such as Night People, La Station Radar and Adagio830. Each release has documented a growing maturity in songwriting and emotional scope. All This Time is Terror Bird’s third full length and is by far the most personal, emotionally affecting and musically developed. Recorded at home over a period of 3 months, the 10 songs on All This Time document a period of intense emotional upheaval, a period wherein Never underwent major shifts in her personal life, rediscovered the solo recording process (previous albums having used live drumming and studio production) and married a raw, personal music with a straighttotape aesthetic most intone with her early recording experiences. The difference this time is that Never’s unique voice at turns operatic and fragile, untutored and wearing its heart on its sleeve serves as the perfect conduit for the emotional turmoil in the songs. Never’s voice has grown into a formidable instrument, a towering, unabashed vocal whose resonance curls around the synth and drum machine production, at times duetting with itself, at times scaling the vocal register to reach new dramatic heights. Brought up on the music of the ‘80s “studio” The Smiths, Siousxie, The Cure Never’s music exists beyond modern zeitgeists or considerations, subverting “big production” music into a personal DIY aesthetic. It’s a pure...
LP $16.50
06/18/2013
CD $13.00
06/18/2013
MP3 $9.90
05/27/2013
***“TERROR BIRD are a Canadian group based on some fascinating contradictions and revolving around the powerful, affecting voice of NIKKI NEVER. Emerging with bedroom-forged cassettes on Night People records, Never added synth players and drummers as she went on via releases on La Station Radar and Night School, finally arriving at this point—a harder-hitting synth-goth masterpiece in Secret Rituals. Gone are the reservations and shyness of the straight-to-4 track songs of old and in their place is a forceful, immediate collection of songs that showcase never's precise and emotive voice. Tracks like 'Thrill Killer' are ‘80s goth pop songs re-imagined for the 21st century underground, insistent and propulsive, ‘Secret Rituals’ is a lush, dark gem and tracks like ‘If We Escape' are heroic, doomed-youth anthems for souls running from an impending doom, overfull but still pumping. the production is clearer than before, the passion intensified. killer LP”.—Rough Trade
LP $15.75
08/07/2012
***This is the long awaited debut LP from Vancouver’s TERROR BIRD, comprised of wife and husband duo NIKKi NEVER and JEREMIAH HAYWOOD. Night-People teamed up with German label Adagio 830 to present this master piece of heartfelt, haunted, ethereal pop music. Nikki’s piano and synth arrangements guide her voice full of feeling and beauty through layers of dark ambience that constantly break away into shinny spaces of hopeful abandon. Artwork by SHAWN REED.
LP $15.50
03/29/2011
MP3 $1.98
03/07/2011