There’s no doubt that Nito is a very gifted guitarist with his ability to carry emotion well through the math-inspired riffs. Borrowing heavily from the lo-fi hip-hop sound, Nito forgoes the drums used on previous EPs and instead focuses exclusively on guitar in N I T O. The result is a short and sweet EP that showcases his natural talent and ability to weave together delicate atmospheres. The guitar work is phenomenal as always but the lack of drums surprisingly works out as the listeners can focus on the individual cascading notes and rhythms far more. Beyond that, not much changes on N I T O as it retains the intricate math-rock sounds that he’s become known for over the past few years.
While it’s technically an EP, N I T O is far shorter than what listeners might expect clocking in at just under ten minutes. The four songs are relatively short with only one of them hitting the three-minute mark. In this respect, N I T O does feel a little underwhelming at times because the passages simply don’t present many ideas before moving away to a new song. Another problem that N I T O has is that the mixing is really hit-or-miss and in particular, the plucked strings during certain sections can get overpowering. On songs like “Orb”, certain emphasized notes are far too loud in comparison to the rest of the sounds and it made me jump more than once. I suppose the idea is to make up for the lack of drums this time around but it’s clear that the mixing was heavy-handed. Nonetheless, N I T O is a great introduction to the talented guitarist and the atmospheres he creates are nothing short of breathtaking at times.
