Ni - Live in London!

Event information

French avant prog metal quartet Ni are visiting London for an intimate gig before their appearance at the major Arctangent festival in Bristol.

Math Rock? Noise? Metal? Jazz? Ni delight in blurring the lines and confusing their audience, remaining true to their desire to go further in experimentation. A call to modernity, guitarists Anthony Béard and François Mignot exploit new pedals, driven by a desire for synthesizer-like sounds, deepening their alchemy with the anarchic rhythm section of Benoit Lecomte (bass) and Nicolas Bernollin (drums).

The Knights Who Say Ni were the keepers of the sacred word, the band Ni however doesn’t need words to impress and conquer. With only music and their energetic live performances as their weapons they leave every audience struck with awe. Ask the audiences at festivals like Roadburn and Complexity, where they had huge success. So get blown away by Ni’s funky freaky and brutal prog rock!

“Time for an almost inimitable example of virtuosity that in terms of complexity leaves bands like Don Caballero and Meshuggah behind. Yes, the French from Ni are crazy as hell, who with their album Fol Naïs (old French for ‘born crazy’) take it one step further than they already did with their previous albums. […] Complex for some, exciting for others, it doesn’t affect the French. Bending or cracking. We thoroughly enjoy the many twists and turns of this unique band.” – (Patrick Bruneel, Luminous Dash)

“Ni’s gig was an explosion of heroic and multilevel rock music. Incredible playing is one thing. Incredible playing on half beats, making a fusion of guitar runs and rhythm that may as well have been molten steel, is another. All chakras aligned, the crowd bayed for more. […] There is a Huge Need for this kind of music in our world, as the free and elemental spirit it invokes goes back to Fela Kuti, Funkadelic, The Monks, Dada, even Mesolithic times. You just don’t fully realise it yet.” – Richard Foster, Louder Than War

“Ni are a stunning assault on the senses. The French band deliver a brawl of riffs and post punk jazz with an infernal intensity that is like Jesus Lizard jamming with free jazz angular dissonance and patterns. It may be noisy and demanding but their coolest trick is that it’s delivered with such joy that it brings the whole room with them and also you can dance to it as the colliding riffs twitch your body into strange shapes with infernal and high energy shapes.” – John Robb, Louder Than war