Nikki Nair Joins dh2, Details New EP The Sick Dimension

Earlier this year, Nikki Nair worked with the Avalanches on the glowing single “Together.” Now he returns to his own fractured electronic world with a new label and a self-deprecating story. The producer has signed to dh2, the dance-focused sublabel launched by George Daniel of the 1975, and announced The Sick Dimension, an EP he says is built from failure.

Nair’s social post was blunt: he tried to make house music, failed, and ended up with “four mistakes that I will package as an EP.” The first of those mistakes, “Default Mode,” is out now. A squelching, unsteady beat carries a voice that sounds both synthetic and exposed—a thin, plasticky texture repeating “I’m always thinking about you” like a cartoon alien attempting a love song. It never settles into comfort, circling a romantic idea but staying robotic and feral.

Speaking about the EP, Nair explains he was digging for old house records and using all the unusual gear he owns. “In my mind, I’m making normal house music, but when I get feedback, I guess it does not sound like normal house music to most people,” he says. That gap between intent and reception shapes the record’s logic. The tracklist runs four titles: “Default Mode,” “Odd Sympathy,” “Please Do Not,” and “One Hundred.”

The Sick Dimension arrives August 7 via dh2.