Abyss

Anika may be known for her aloof persona, but emotion has always been a vital part of her music -- and never more so than on Abyss. On Change and her albums with Exploded View, she warned listeners about issues like climate change and global politics, and her third album is the sound of someone well and truly fed up with everything. Working once again with Exploded Views Martin Thulin, Anika channels her frustration with a brutalist take on grunge (Holes Celebrity Skin was one of her inspirations). Shes no copyist, however, and Abyss primal minimalism has a rough elegance that only makes her messages more captivating. She snaps the album to attention immediately with "Hearsay," a needling caution against fake news and social media misinformation thats both ominous and wry; on "Oxygen," the echo engulfing her voice provides an ironic contrast to the suffocating lack of freedoms she details. Anika has always complemented her distinctive voice with equally ear-catching sonics, and even the albums heaviest moments -- the title tracks hypnotic grind, "Out of the Shadows" punky thrash -- are far from predictable. She brings just enough range to Abyss to avoid monotony, letting the personal bleed into the political with "Honey"s nightmarish hall of mirrors and tempering her anger with sorrow on songs such as "One Way Ticket," perhaps the most traditional protest song here. Her way with poetically simple songwriting also shines on "Into the Fire," which plays like a classic folk song viewed through a post-punk lens, and on the deceptively idyllic "Buttercups," which blurs the boundaries between a gesture of hope and an elegy. Its telling that the cheeriest-sounding song, "Walk Away," is about leaving everyone and everything behind (and its worth listening to the album just for her impeccable delivery of the lyric "life can just suck"). Confrontational in ways quiet and loud, Abyss is a testament to Anikas fierce artistic independence and gift for haunting moods. ~ Heather Phares

ベルリンを拠点に活動するアニカの新作。オーヴァーダブを最小限に抑えたライヴ・レコーディングによって作られた曲群を聴くと、スティーヴ・アルビニがプロデュースしたPJハーヴェイ『Rid Of Me』的な生々しいロック・サウンドが思い浮かぶ。現代社会で生きていて感じるフラストレーションを吐き出すアニカの歌声は、ニコを彷彿させる声質だ。
bounce (C)近藤真弥