Live Review: Niia 'Seeing Red'

My first impressions of NIIA were probably similar to those experienced by WYCLEF JEAN—or anyone else that's had the pleasure of hearing her sound, for that matter. Namely: she's got a pretty brilliant voice.

It was JEAN that 'discovered' NIIA, so to speak, while she was living in New York, the centre of the world—and it was under his wing that she became an international name, playing in the studios of David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel and Craig Ferguson. More recently, she's covered the likes of MAJICAL CLOUDZ and PRINCE.

The aforementioned voice is pretty hard to miss: NIIA rocks a set of soulful, tender jazz pipes; a smooth, velvety timbre cut from the same cloth as artists like ALICIA KEYS. And her latest track, 'Seeing Red', could have all too easily come from the songbook of that particular world-dominating songstress.

This track's one of those 'start small, end a little less small' builders. It rings in with a sparse and gently rising percussion riff, rolling out the carpet for NIIA herself and her dreamy marriage of soft vocals and minimalist piano hits. Those piano hits get slightly more pronounced for the chorus; her voice slightly fuller. But even at it's height the song remains a wistful, traipsing piece of soul, equal parts warm and cold; apologetic and self-righteous.

It's a pretty slow-burning ballad, unfurling in its final act into an old school, jazzbar jewel of musical modern noir—complete with cooing backup vocal harmonies and softly marching drum canters. Overall, it's good-for-the-soul soul music from a songstress to keep an eye on.

Words by Gavin Butler

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SEE ALSO:

NIIA 'GENERATION BLUE' (OFFICIAL VIDEO)