Introducing: Niki and the Dove

Name: Niki and the Dove
From: Stockholm, Sweden
Story: Niki wields The Knife
Sound: Theatrical, dark, strange, sincere electro-pop

Like last week's introductees, I Break Horses, Niki and the Dove are a duo lead by one woman. But where I Break Horse's Maria Lindén builds barreling walls of shoegaze fuzz, Malin Dahlström has an approach both more electronic and more classical.

Dahlström essentially picks up on the mystical Kate Bush/Sugarcubes/Björk/Bat for Lashes lineage, in which kooky theatricality is a mask for utter artistic sincerity. Her closest comparison isn't any of the dames along that line, but one walking far off the beaten path: that queen of stagey electro strangeness, Karin Dreijer-Andersson of The Knife and Fever Ray.

"Winterheart" shows Dahlström and off-sider Gustaf Karlöf at their most Knife-like: a dense, pop-song mix of fried circuits, string stabs, and (synthesized) steel-pan drums that brings back memories of the Dreijers circa Deep Cuts. "Winterheart"'s lyrics are poignantly post-breakup, and it has a thematic twin in "DJ, Ease My Mind," in which the dancefloor is a place to both forget about and remember a past love.

"DJ, Ease My Mind" was the flip to Niki and the Dove's debut single, the ecstatic eight-minute anthem "Under the Bridges," which was released last year on taste-making UK label Moshi Moshi. This year, after a trickle of soundfiles, N&TD issued their second official release, a single on Sub Pop called "The Fox."

Dahlström and Karlöf are touring all over the UK, soon, playing shows with slick electro-rockers S.C.U.M. and Wolf Gang. The duo are, also, at work polishing off their debut Niki and the Dove LP. Even if it just collects all their singles so far, it's still bound to be epic.

• Listen: Niki and the Dove, "The Fox"
• Listen: Niki and the Dove on Soundcloud

All the Places He Used to Take Me:
September 2: Co Laois, Ireland - Electric Picnic
October 2: Exeter, England - Phoenix
October 3: Bristol, England - Thekla Social
October 4: Portsmouth, England - Wedgewood Rooms
October 5: Nottingham, England - Rescue Rooms
October 7: Birmingham, England - O2 Academy
October 8: Manchester, England - Club Academy
October 9: Newcastle, England - O2 Academy
October 10: Glasgow, Scotland - King Tut's Wah Wah Hut
October 11: Leeds, England - Cockpit
October 12: Reykjavík, Iceland - Iceland Airwaves
October 13: Norwich, England - Waterfront
October 14: Oxford, England - Oxford Academy
October 15: Stoke-on-Trent, England - Sugarmill
October 17: Brighton, England - Concorde 2
October 18: London, England - Koko
October 20: Cardiff, Wales - SWN Festival