REVIEW & Photos: Nyck – the church of bang bang boogaloo

We make our way down a small bluestone alleyway just off Flinders Lane to find The Church of Bang Bang Boogaloo. The quirky little chapel with a rustic charm is filled with candles and features a backdrop of neon-blue icicle lighting. It’s the perfect setting for this very special intimate showcase.

Abraham Tilbury welcomes us with a down-tempo electronic sound along with his smooth vocals boasting a beautiful falsetto. His songs are a combination of different production elements that effortlessly blend together. He creates layer upon layer by looping sound recordings over the top of keyboard melodies and glitchy beats. Most tunes he plays tonight are pretty fresh, including an unfinished collaboration with Golden Vessel that he delivers with only the keyboard at his fingertips and his powerful voice to echo throughout the room. Sadly his set is cut short before his last song and we only wish we can hear more from this wunderkind.

Nyck open with Speak My Mind. Tonight is the second time the duo has ever played with a band but this occasion is extra special as they are celebrating the launch of their debut EP. Guests including Ross Irwin, Hayden Canlin and Lanks all contribute to the band by adding vocals, guitars, a trumpet and live drums. The venue provides great acoustics to really enhance the beautiful soundscape. Together Nick Acquroff and Dominique Garrard combine their mesmerising vocals to create gorgeous harmonies full of raw and honest emotion. “We only met a couple of years ago and released one song before we had anything else,” Acquroff explains. “We released [Decision] thinking no one would give a shit but it's touched a lot of people and opened up a hell of a lot of opportunities for us.” The happy-go-lucky pair continues with the melancholic and vulnerable tune that they label as ‘the ultimate break-up song’.

Nyck has been writing a lot of new songs lately, including Alive, which actually didn’t make it on their EP of the same name. The song is about a transformative time in Acquuroff’s life. “It was written at a turning point when I decided to kick back at the world after feeling a bit shit,” he reveals. They also share another song never played before and one that is on their recent release called The Summer Inside, which features Acquroff’s grandma. “It’s a song about anxiety and my grandma certainly doesn't have it,” he jokes. The pair usually plays a lot just by themselves and their keyboards so the band leaves them for a quieter moment that’s stripped back to how they usually perform. The audience is silent and still as they soak up every note.

Their newest track, which is only a week old, is the very last. It’s a song about having a bender with your friends called Wild Streak, and is possibly an anthem for many of us in the room on this Friday night. They assure us there is no encore because they don't have any more songs to play for us. Nyck’s ‘Alive EP’ is just a taste of what’s to come from this unique musical duo and tonight’s showcase has us excited for the greatness that’s sure to follow.

Words by: Michael Prebeg