Postpunk – “Abyss” by Anika: All cards newly mixed

It has been 15 years ago that a musician, which was still largely unknown at the time under the alias Anika with her debut of the same name and electro-folkloric Dark-Noir songs, caused a noticeably sensation in the pop underground ground. At that time, it was not only her artist’s name that aroused associations to the great singer Nico: also and above all her depth, sometimes awkward and at the same time mystically charged voice recalled the femme fatal of the pop cultural avant -garde, which had written in the New York of the 60s with her band The Velvet Underground history.

In contrast to the Cologne native, whose Teutonic-Aktischer accent potentially potentially potentially the cold of her English music, Anika is powerful in the English language. What is not surprising, since she was born in Surrey in British in 1987. But she also has a connection to Germany, more precisely to Berlin, where she has been living for some time and, in addition to music, is also artistically active in the areas of theater and film.

After publishing her second work “Change” in 2021, “Abyss” album number three now follows. And as in the predecessor, the following applies again: All cards are mixed again. Because instead of electronically-surface sound landscapes, Annika Henderson-according to her bourgeois name-presents herself in the guitar-heavy post-punk robe. It was tailor-made within a few days in the legendary Berlin Hansa studios, where she recorded the songs and her band live on tape-which also cemented the raw sound character of the album.

When hearing, Henderson, in addition to her artistic activity, is also a political journalist is hardly surprising when listening. Because the ten new new songs read consistently like once an angry, sometimes resigned comment on a world that has not only been out of joint since Donald Trump’s election. In the opener “Hearsay”, for example, she denounces the power of the media cartels: “And you’Re making up stories to push your narrative/ and you’re making up valley to be provocative”. In addition, drums and bass whip in step and underline the apocalyptic character of the more spoken than sung word.

The other songs also make text and lyrically in a similar notch: in the pre -absence »Oxygen«, for example, she sings against the claustrophobic character of the binary gender construction. “Give Me Oxygen/ Give Me What I Want,” she repeats it mantra -like. Again and again she musically roamed the noise skirt of the 80s and early 90s, as bands such as the Pixies, The Breeders or The Birthday Party with minimal means.

Just as on the two predecessors, it is again impressive to what extent Anika also succeeds in “Abyss” to develop her artistic concept in the length of the album and to follow stringent. If synthesizers were still the elixir of the music on “Changes”, they have now completely disappeared from the sound. Instead, she limits herself to the tried and tested interplay of guitar, drums and bass. It cannot elicit a completely new, but many convincing impulses.

Anika: »Abyss« (Sacred Bones)