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Our single of the week (16th September 2011)
...according to our Clinton on Fri 16 Sep, 2011.
There's no one on earth who has come close to the deep teutonic howl of Nico but this Anika lady comes mighty close with a stonking hooter of unremitting strength. On the A side, she barks away over the top of some fantastic deep, dark, dubby PiL-like atmospherics with a fabulous pulsing Jah Wobble bass holding things together splendidly. It's produced by Geoff Barrow which makes perfect sense given the kraut-ish grooves of the last Portishead album and his Beak> project. I'm not one for superlatives but I'd perhaps say that the B side - a cover of Yoko Ono's 'Yang Yang' remixed by Vex Ruffian - is even better. Here, Anika comes across like a female version of Billy Mackenzie's tortured beautiful operatic howl and when the noisy guitars and squawking sax kick in over a metronomic drum machine you can't help recall the brilliance of The Associates' bleak, rainswept 'Fourth Drawer Down' masterpiece.
“Political Journalist” isn’t a credential usually found in musician’s bios, but this is exactly what Anika was doing while living between Berlin and Bristol earlier this year when she met Geoff Barrow. The producer was looking for a new singer to work with his band Beak>, and it was immediately clear they shared the same musical vision, including a love of punk, dub and ‘60s girl groups. Just a week later Anika and Beak> (Barrow, Billy Fuller and Matt Williams) went into the studio to begin recording material. The resulting album, for Barrow’s Invada label, was recorded in twelve days, live, with the four together in one room. Dub with no overdubs. The collaboration is political, trashy, dub, punk, funk ... a cohesive sound, and experience in uneasy listening. In the tradition of short-lived but deeply influential 99 Records and the NYC’s 80s No Wave nexus, the nine songs on the full length run the gamut from experimental rock (‘Yang Yang’, ‘Officer Officer’) to covers of folk (‘Masters Of War’) and pop songs (‘Terry’, ‘I Go To Sleep’), while showcasing reverb-drenched ancient drum machine rhythms. This USA 7” on Stones Throw is the first single from the album, and features the track ‘No One Cares’ on the A side, with an exclusive remix by new Stones Throw signings Vex Ruffin of ‘Yang Yang’ on the B.
A. No One’s There B. Yang Yang (Vex Ruffin Remix)
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