NAVVI EP Release Show @ Madame Lou’s

Thursday, July 13th • 7:30 pm

Recording for Carnation, Washington’s Hush Hush label, which is best known for its spacious ambient output, NAVVI are an outlier. 

The Seattle duo of vocalist Kristin Henry and producer Brad Boettger create exquisitely crafted, song-based electronic music that aims for the upper reaches of Billboard’s pop charts but without revealing an iota of crass commercialism. It’s a mean feat. NAVVI’s songs elegantly bump and swirl in gleaming synths and shimmering guitars, as Henry emotes with understated passion in the luxurious nexus between Sade and Portishead’s Beth Gibbons. 

Some of NAVVI’s songs are pretty danceable (see the nocturnal house sashay of “To Know You” from the 2019 EP 2502), but Henry and Boettger don’t seem overly concerned about dropping club bangers; they’d rather seduce you with suave electro-pop. This show celebrates the release of V, a two-track EP that finds the band attaining their richest blend of sparkly textures, immaculately snappy beats, and coolly glazed singing.