ANOHNI

http://static.spin.com/files/2015/12/anohni-640x640.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi0q0O4V5Qs

caps artist's own. I love this new song, in which she sings about wanting to see lemurs burn up and stuff.

[CONTROVERSIAL MOD EDIT]

Really strong arrangement and musical performance make her voice somewhat bearable.

"drone bomb me" pretty excellent

Yeah, this is great. It does make me think I'm listening to When Saints Go Machine though.

what a song and video

so rad, she's on fire right now, dayum

the relentlessness of the lyrical button-pushing is so fucking thorough

i haven't been super taken by much she's done since i am a bird now but yes this is so very good.

also fp stanm, what the hell

Yeah, I know. Sorry.

How do you pronounce Anohni?

Judging by the first couple of songs to have emerged this record could end up being very good indeed.

a-NOH-ni

after listening to "drone bomb me" a ton of times, i'm still not remotely tired of it.

The album's out tomorrow!

Gonna see her live at The Armory in a few weeks, pretty psyched.

is she touring with the Oneohtrix Point Never and Hudson Mohawke guys?

Really excited to hear this tomorrow. Her melodies are so delicate I'm curious to see how they'll stand up to these arrangements.

In the meantime I've been revisiting The Crying Light and remembering how incredible it is. Better than I Am A Bird Now, imo.

did not know there was a new album coming out, but just listened to "4 Degrees" like six times in a row. kills. will absolutely get this.

In the meantime I've been revisiting The Crying Light and remembering how incredible it is. Better than I Am A Bird Now, imo.

― Evan R

I could never get into The Crying Light in the same way. Another World, Kiss My Name and Aeon are the only songs that come anywhere near to the quality of I Am A Bird Now for me.

is she touring with the Oneohtrix Point Never and Hudson Mohawke guys?
― StanM, Th

I dunno if she's touring; the concert i'm going to is a red bull music academy show:
http://armoryonpark.org/programs_events/detail/anohni_hopelessness

There are shows where "with Oneohtrix Point Never and Hudson Mohawke" is specifically mentioned, but not at the Armory

http://www.secretlycanadian.com/live/#anohni

(specifically? I may have meant "explicitly")

The blurb for the shows at the Armory says: "Featuring original films and a band that includes Oneohtrix Point Never"

I could never get into The Crying Light in the same way. Another World, Kiss My Name and Aeon are the only songs that come anywhere near to the quality of I Am A Bird Now for me.

Ha, oddly enough I'm indifferent to those three songs. "Her Eyes Are Underneath The Ground" and (especially) "Epilepsy Is Dancing" just absolutely gut me, though. God, that "Cut me in quadrants... leave me in the corner" chorus. Unbelievable.

this is really really good, and i was lukewarm on the singles

I'm still unsure about the directness of the lyrics (it's a protest album and all but still...) but the production is all so fucking gorgeous.

This album is like the Dreamworks Animation version of the oncoming apocalypse.

iPhone wants to autocorrect Anohni as 'snog I'. Which is... a thing.

for a buzz album abt *issues* this is actually p good

'i don't love you anymore' is kind of amazing

I was hoping this thread would be about a Hawaiian fish or something. Disappointing.

Almost possible, but it wouldn't be on ILM though, right? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fish_of_Hawaii

I am pro-Anohni and I think this album is largely fantastic (especially Crisis, wow), but I think the sumptuousness of her voice works against her at times, especially with lyrical content like this. Phrasing is the thing that turns a great voice into a great singer (and can turn an indifferent or bad voice into a great vocalist), and it's really apparent on here how she phrases almost everything in the same way, something about the emphasis on every syllable. I knew exactly how she was going to sing the phrase "child molesters" before I heard it, and sure enough that was exactly how she sang it.

That shouldn't detract too much from the fact that this album is an astonishing achievement, I can think of very little else quite like it, and abandoning the piano was the best thing she could have done here.

Loving this album and i agree with your caveats matt.

ive been thinking about the directness of the lyrics which, at first, i thought were pretty cringeworthy. i'm not really a lyrics guy, so 99% of the time lyrics will just pass by me as another instrument or something. what i find interesting about what anohni is doing here is that by speaking directly without much metaphor and using some awkward phrasings, she is demanding i listen to the lyrics consciously. i think this is a pretty successful artistic choice for an overtly political album

i know what you mean about "i bet she'll sing 'CHILD MOlesters' like..." and there is some po faced corniness at play here but i think it's earned

this album is fucking fantastic; the back half in particular just soars

great album

can't think of any album from the last twenty years that is simultaneously so musically forward-thinking and explicitly political

also the voice absolutely makes this

can't think of any album from the last twenty years that is simultaneously so musically forward-thinking and explicitly political

― it me, Friday, May 6, 2016 10:25 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://cdn.ambrosiaforheads.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/tpab.jpg

it's a movement

(especially Crisis, wow)

THIS

This is fucking amazing. I'm drunk and I don't at this stage want to add much more, but I will later. I was a little afraid to listen to this record because it has two of my favourite artists of this century collaborating but. On first listen it's fucking amazing.

This album is so good. Obama is the only song I'm not totally sold on. Her low vocals are a bit hard to get used to on that one.

I mentioned them earlier in the thread, but I seriously do keep finding myself thinking I'm listening to When Saints Go Machine. This is the album that should have followed Konkylie.

I kinda love "Obama"; it's totally against type and gonzo.

this album is whoa, and yeah "obama" is amazing

joining the praise party this is v good and beautiful music, the zero-subtlety lyrics would grate in the wrong context but her voice sells them

all the RHIIIINOOOOS and all the BIG MAMMAAAAAAAALS

i've been banging this and the new Quik back to back and they fit better than you might think

can a mod delete that horrendous stanm first response? incredibly unpleasant to look at every time, wtf were you thinking

more reviews:

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/anohnis-hopeless-politics-take-over-park-avenue-armory-8639183
http://flavorwire.com/576789/the-mask-of-sorrow-anohni-as-the-veiled-grim-reaper

it's telling to me that most of the reviews I've seen talk at length about the concept and execution and bend over backward to justify the staging but no one says whether or not the concert was actually enjoyable or not.

I was at one of these shows. I don't know if 'enjoyed' is the right word, but on a very base level it felt good to hear this stuff blasted at ear splitting volume. The album lends itself to that. "More gallery show than performance" is right, but I liked that. I don't really know what else she could have done to present these songs, what exactly were you looking for ulysses?

my fav moments on this are the little pockets of bowieish overdubbed vocal scatting

XP to what i would've liked: an opportunity to let the viewer do some of the work to digest the material rather than presenting it in such rigorous terms. live instrumentation would've been very much welcomed. a break in the rigorous funereal procession; just any moment of levity? the music is often quite acerbically funny and that element of it was ignored. the intense self-seriousness of the whole exercise merked my ability to engage.

beyond all that, as i said above, i didn't think she was in particularly good voice. On another (perhaps less defensible) point, there was loads of pre-recorded backing vocals supporting her and it was often about 10% live performance and 90% playing the stuff at ear splitting volume. I'm okay with that when the spectacle is less one note but this committed the deadliest of sins for me as a viewer: it was boring. MOMA's Bjork show was similarly static and suffered from "don't-look-at-me-look-at-me" egoism; if i had seen this at a gallery, i would've walked out sooner.

live instrumentation would've been very much welcomed

are any live instruments used in the making of the album? sounds 100% made on a computer to me

any moment of levity? the music is often quite acerbically funny and that element of it was ignored. the intense self-seriousness of the whole exercise merked my ability to engage.

really? what are the moments of levity or humor on the album, iyo? it's pretty dour and self-serious...

Huh, interesting. Yeah, I definitely didn't want any live instrumentation from this, I don't feel that would have worked in the context of the material. I thought the fake/real juxtaposition was kind of good, I liked that she would step away from the mic occasionally and the singing would continue. I like live performance that leaves you a little blurry as to what exactly is being played on stage.

are any live instruments used in the making of the album? sounds 100% made on a computer to me

what are the moments of levity or humor on the album, iyo?

I should probably buttress this series of posts with a note clarifying that i'm not accusing anyone who enjoyed her live show of being taken in; the music itself is reason enough to have found something to have enjoyed there. Position, I think your suggestion that you liked the "I am singing / I am not singing" sleight of hand suggests to me that we were definitely seeking different things. I wanted a live show! I've seen Antony live before at piano and it was greatly enjoyable. IMO, all this revelatory rigamarole only served to obfuscate the music. It seemed totally counterproductive; you're preaching to the choir.

"don't-look-at-me-look-at-me" egoism;

is it really egoism or insecurity/shyness?

i think if you sell out two nights at an airplane hangar, you likely can handle being looked at.

i got no issue with choosing to hide within the spotlight; sia and the knife manage that well. the routine of redirection suggesting she was speaking as the voice of these gargantuan, youtube ready monoliths of womanhood felt both disingenuous and lacked the complexity that i felt the music deserved. i didn't sense any connection between the songs and the women on the screen; whatever dramatic narrative intended there was entirely arbitrary.

much of the albums is acidly sarcastic and feels perched at the edge of nihilism; the light harp on "execution" with A's joyous intonation of the title feels cleverly funny to me and helps give the sudden downturn of the end of the track real weight. i find "4 Degrees" genuinely funny; it's Nero's suggestion that if we're gonna fuck the planet, let's at least have a good time while we're doing it! "Violent Men" seems drunkenly giddy, even in it's (you should forgive the obvious descriptor) hopelessness. Hell, even "Obama" has some sense of humor in the "So You Want to Write a Fugue" school of allowing the form to dictate the function of the piece; it's so single mindedly dirge-like and clever that i can't help but imagine it delivered with a half-smile.

― ulysses, Friday, 20 May 2016 18:50 (17 minutes ago) Permalink

good post. '4 degrees' does make me lol actually ('i wanna burm them, i wanna burn

 t h e m 

imo ANOHNI's humor and achewood's humor are less disconnected than appearances might suggest.

separate from the above criticisms, here's a thought that i'm surprised i haven't seen anywhere: A has absolutely renounced masculinity but isn't expressly choosing to embrace the physicality of the feminine. It appears A wants to escape the restrictions and presumptions of gender and speak as a unsexed spirit. But she's chosen to premiere this becoming-a-creation onstage supported by two cloaked cis white guys and channeling her voice through a series of women, most of them POC. That seems, on the face of it, wildly problematic, no?

Or am I being thick and that's the point?

not everything has to manifest, foreground or comment on one's gender, even if one is transgender

Sure, of course.

but when the optics of your live performance are so firmly focused on gender or lack thereof, you necessarily leave yourself open to critical scrutiny on that front.
though tbh, i'm mostly just kicking the can with that earlier thought. trying to see if I can find something meaningful as a takeaway from the show so's i can grow a bit.

sorry you are doomed to be stunted and slovenly

shucks

I'm not sure what you're arguing other than, "But if she's becoming a woman, why doesn't she look and act like one?"

not my point.
i think i'm arguing that the live show is getting a bit of a pass from cultural critics because of the complexity/thorniness of the issues at play.

and because the album's so good!

I agree!

Tayyab Amin on "Drone Bomb Me":
http://www.factmag.com/2016/03/14/singles-club-anohni-zayn/2/

otm

Rly good point

yow, brutal.
btw, when did fader start doing singles jukebox?

i thought this song was about romantic desperation the first dozen times i heard it, so i guess that's how clued in i am.

Huh, imo that's a misread. The song's POV isn't that of a "nonwhite" drone victim, but ANOHNI herself - declaring her complicity, asking for justice. The whole record is centered around her own complicity in unjust systems.

"Crisis" is the one where she seems to try to give a reading of drone victims' hearts and thoughts; Amin's criticism might apply there, but pretty softly.

“It’s a love song from the perspective of a girl in Afghanistan, say a 9-year-old girl whose family’s been killed by a drone bomb,” ANOHNI explained to Mac. “She is kind of looking up at the sky and she’s gotten herself to a place where she just wants to be killed by a drone bomb too.”

http://www.spin.com/2016/03/anohni-drone-bomb-me-new-song-annie-mac-hopelessness-naomi-campbell-music-video-stream/

The song commingles eroticism and terror. I mean -- "Blow me from the mountain"

For me HOPELESSNESS is at its strongest when it presents as a psychodrama about being a citizen of a Western country that spies on you and kills people in your name, and the kinds of intimacies that come out of that. Putting those thoughts in the mind of a victim on the other side of the world, who is not complicit in the same way, is, well, problematic.

This is a great headphones record.

Been listening to this a fair bit recently and wanted to add some thoughts, though can't say they are entirely original - mainly as I was reading the comments about the possible dubiousness of 'Drone Bomb Me' and thought they were kind-of simultaneously dead-on and missing the point

To try and drill it down to something, I feel Hopelessness is about (a) the horrors of the modern world (b) the human instinct for and (physical?) desire for drama and chaos and (c) the self-disgust at realising that we as a civilization and her as an individual are complicit in these horrors and in love with the drama of destruction. Of course (a) and (b) are obvious to anyone listening to the LP, but I think that (c) is just as important, if not more so.

So much about the LP seems to be about rubbing our own face in our vomit. For anyone who finds Drone Bomb Me uncomfortable or distateful, that seems to be exactly the point. Anohni is castigating herself for pretending to empathize with this imaginary girl when she and we are responsible for her plight and think we can somehow excuse ourselves by writing songs / comments on message boards - and I think that's reflected in the interviews too.

This applies to the music too, every track (except possibly the end of Crisis) sounds slightly off, not unlistenably so, but just sickly and uncomfortable, there isn't a single moment where I can just sit back and enjoy what I'm hearing.

I don't know if I could ever say I enjoy listening to it, I agree with Ned that it's anxiety-inducing, but I'm glad music with this amount of thought being put into it exists, and I keep coming back to it.

Sorry if this is all obvious, but I wanted to put it down somewhere.

I wanted to love this record.

I was very excited when I heard Anohni was working with Hud Mo because I thought "We're going to get a full record of Anohni being the house diva she was clearly born to be", as we heard on Blind. I was still into it when I heard Four Degrees, but the record itself was disappointing and I think I like the idea of it a lot more than the execution. The problem for me is Anohni as a vocalist: it seems that for so long they've been able to trade on the persona and how superficially perfect their voice is that they've not really had to focus on how they phrase the words or in fact doing anything more than demonstrating "I am emoting because these things are sad". A lot of the record sounds like a musical theatre student being given the task "Do something politically relevant. It's all a bit jazz hands. I hear no ache but it's not because the person singing the songs is too numbed by the horror to ache. The exception is on Violent Men which is the shortest track on it but, to me, the most affecting.

At the same time I love the ambition of the record and I admire what she's trying to do and say.

this album is deranged and beautiful and amazing. of course drone bomb me is fucked up and appropriative -- that's what gives it its sinister edge; that's what makes you look again at the experience it fails to capture, the monstrosity of abstraction.

The new mini-album/EP/whatever Paradise is fantastic, btw.

of course drone bomb me is fucked up and appropriative -- that's what gives it its sinister edge; that's what makes you look again at the experience it fails to capture, the monstrosity of abstraction.

Counterpoint: The failure to capture the experience described in interviews is a profound misstep in communication that neuters the point the song is trying to make, leaving it an unthinking, amorphous, callous mess.

yeah i think "callous" is going pretty far off the deep end of that particular ideological argument

When I discovered there was an ANHONI/Cocorosie collaboration, I was not surprised.

Artists are capable of sweeping the gross shit their friends do under the rug when they're united in being more enlightened than everyone else.

(Insert your own quotes around any word(s) in that sentence you wish.)

vocals seem poorly recorded on this

https://i.imgur.com/LwyaiWx.jpg

ANOHNI and the Johnsons
IT MUST CHANGE
new single May 16

First single out, the full album My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross out on July 7th.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2cF9o7FuU4

Credited as ANOHNI and the Johnsons

lovely

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KivIZOdQc_c

new album is a triumph

As usual the voice doesn't always gel with the arrangements, but I like how on the good songs she sings as if she's letting you in on a secret.

Why Am I Alive Now? is lovely. Tim Buckley vibes.

Love the new album, the final track brings me to tears every time.

Gorgeous