ANOHNI | ||
| Allmusic Biography : U.K.-born, California-raised Anohni (born Antony Hegarty) felt like the consummate outsider until coming face to face with the image of Boy George on the cover of Culture Clubs 1982 debut album Kissing to Be Clever. Eight years later, Hegarty relocated to New York City and found a world more accepting of avant-garde sensibilities and sexual ambiguity. An early incarnation was the cabaret ensemble Blacklips, modeled after Blue Velvet-era Isabella Rossellini, and the drag queen who graced the cover of Soft Cells 1982 single "Torch." Hegarty formed Antony and the Johnsons in 1998, and the band released its self-titled debut on David Tibets Durtro label in 2000, followed by an appearance on the Lou Reed albums The Raven and Animal Serenade, plus a tour with Reed throughout 2003. (Hegarty also appeared in the 2000 Steve Buscemi film Animal Factory as an androgynous convict.) Antony and the Johnsons released a series of EPs in 2004, followed by the bands second full-length, the Mercury Prize-winning I Am a Bird Now, in February of 2005. Hegarty spent the next two years on the road, as well as appearing on Björks Volta and in the Leonard Cohen documentary Im Your Man before returning to the studio for the 2008 EP Another World, which preceded 2009s full-length The Crying Light. Antony and the Johnsons fourth studio album, Swanlights, arrived the following year. In 2011, the albums publisher, Abrams, issued a companion edition of Swanlights collected in book form, with Hegartys paintings, drawings, photography, collages, song lyrics, and writings. In 2012, the band released Cut the World, a symphonic retrospective arranged and performed in collaboration with the Danish National Chamber Orchestra. It featured 11 tracks from their catalog and the title cut, a new song written for Robert Wilsons stage production The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic. In 2006, Hegarty collaborated with video artist Charles Atlas on a performance piece called Turning, which combined a live performance by Antony and the Johnsons with video projections created by Atlas featuring women who had struggled with self-image and sexual identity in their lives. Atlas later made a documentary about the show, simply titled Turning, and in 2014 the films soundtrack album was released in tandem with a DVD edition of the film. In 2015, Hegarty announced the impending release of a new project with Hudson Mohawke and Oneohtrix Point Never. The resulting Hopelessness, a dark, experimental electronic piece, released under the moniker Anohni, was issued in 2016. That same year, Hegarty received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song, with J. Ralph, for "Manta Ray," which appeared in the 2015 documentary film Racing Extinction. In 2017, Anohni released a six-song EP, Paradise, a companion piece to Hopelessness. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 2 Title: HOPELESSNESS Released: 2016-05-06 Tracks: 11 Duration: 41:43 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Drone Bomb Me (04:11) 2 4 Degrees (03:52) 3 Watch Me (03:27) 4 Execution (03:38) 5 I Don’t Love You Anymore (05:00) 6 Obama (04:11) 7 Violent Men (02:10) 8 Why Did You Separate Me From the Earth? (03:36) 9 Crisis (04:42) 10 Hopelessness (03:55) 11 Marrow (03:01) |
| HOPELESSNESS : Allmusic album Review : The sweet, beautiful sadness of Anohnis voice (she was previously known as Antony Hegarty) has always been only half the story in her best work. On her recordings with Antony and the Johnsons, the dramatic swell of Anohnis voice was wedded to graceful melodies and lyrics that told deeply emotional, humanistic tales of the struggle for and acceptance of love in a hostile world. Anohnis music so often comprises elegant but passionate stories of the personal made public that her first album after adopting her new name, 2016s Hopelessness, comes as something of a shock. The nuanced, organic musical accompaniment of Anohnis most celebrated work has been replaced with cool, often aggressive electronic soundscapes created by co-producers Hudson Mohawke and Oneohtrix Point Never. And instead of singing tales of love and desperation, here Anohni moves from the personal to the political, taking on global warming, drone warfare, government intrusion in our lives, violence in all its forms, and her frustrations with Barack Obamas presidency in no uncertain terms. While one could dance to some of these tracks if it were absolutely necessary, the music feels harsh and apocalyptic more often than not. And though Anohnis voice remains strong and passionate, a thread of bitterness runs through most of these performances (not inappropriate, given the themes of the songs). "Crisis" and the title song are two of the few moments here where the warmth and compassion that were Anohnis trademarks are audible, even as theyre contrasted with the jagged surfaces of Mohawke and Point Nevers music. Hopelessness is a powerful and uncompromising work, but its also purposefully difficult, and demands the listener accept it entirely on its own terms. This music leaves no doubt that Anohni remains a strikingly talented vocalist and songwriter, but where the warm heart of 2006s I Am a Bird Now reached out to the listener, Hopelessness instead throws up a wall as it launches an assault on an unjust world. Anohnis targets deserve all the fury she unleashes upon them, but that doesnt make this any easier to engage with, even if you agree with what Anohni has to say. | ||
 | Album: 2 of 2 Title: Paradise Released: 2017-03-17 Tracks: 6 Duration: 22:43 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 In My Dreams (03:01) 2 Paradise (04:28) 3 Jesus Will Kill You (03:27) 4 You Are My Enemy (02:38) 5 Ricochet (03:59) 6 She Doesn’t Mourn Her Loss (05:10) |