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  • kurta
    Senior Member
    • Jun 2014
    • 122

    ANOHNI - Hopelessness

    ANOHNI's HOPELESSNESS. This album is one of the year's best. Can we also say, one of its most important?

    You have to be careful throwing around words like "important" when it comes to art because, well, you run the risk of damning the artist with the pretense of your hubristic ability to identify what "matters" aesthetically. But ANOHNI's is an album that defies time. It is a record deeply for, and of this age -- in its electronic aesthetic (produced in parts by avant-electro masters Oneohtrix Point Never and Hudson Mohawke), but also in its subject matter, which is relentlessly, subversively political. But as much as it is of this time, it's also utterly timeless vis a vis ANOHNI's singular voice, that ineffable beacon shining into the lineage of Arthur Russell and Nina Simone and untold operatic masters, yet a bright light entirely its own. (When you listen, you'll recognize the voice as identical to that of Antony Hegarty; the artist has transitioned, and she is now known as this all-capitalized name.)

    About that "subversive" element: Beneath the sonic ingenuity of OPN and Hudson's production, ANOHNI is lyrically playing with pop-music's common tropes -- sexuality, love, and yearning -- and flipping them on their head to make bold, ironic statements about our relationship to this planet, and ourselves. It's a political album in the fullest, and one unlike any that's ever been made.

    The theatrical avant-banger "Four Degrees" puts huge, resounding drums and sinister electro in service of ANOHNI's yearning -- to just crank up the global thermostat a bit, to hear the dogs crying for water, to see the animals dying in the trees ("it's only four degrees").



    The glimmering opening track "Drone Bomb Me" is a come-hither come-on, a girl to her paramour -- but here the girl is in a battle-ravaged land targeted by the Western military, and the lover is a drone. ("Drone bomb me, blow me from the mountains and into the sea ... I want to be the apple of your eye... Let me be the first, I'm not so innocent... Let me be the one you choose from above..." all sung in the voice of one who recognizes a union that's fated, head over heels, literally and physically.



    This stuff hits on so many levels. HOPELESSNESS is the album, and it's so good.

    Comment

    • ADreamofBlue
      Senior Member
      • Sep 2015
      • 194


      "I'll kiss the ground, and let you walk on by."
      who slips in to my body and whispers to my ghost?

      Comment

      • Ransack
        Junior Member
        • Jun 2016
        • 2

        I just recently discovered the group Snarky Puppy. Great band if you have an interest in jazz

        Comment

        • deltapie
          Senior Member
          • Feb 2014
          • 154

          Just started getting into crust after I saw these guys live.


          "Keep Mr. Saberi healthy — he knows too much

          Comment

          • gustavobradley
            Member
            • Jun 2016
            • 53

            Damn deltapie, those vocals are awesome.

            I've been listening to the new Swans record a lot. It's a marathon of a listen, but I've really enjoyed it.

            Comment

            • eaglewood
              Senior Member
              • Feb 2007
              • 116

              Robert Glasper Trio - Covers
              Also Robert Glasper Experiment - Black Radio 2 (extended version)
              Music video by Robert Glasper performing The Worst. (C) 2015 Blue Note RecordsBest of Robert Glasper: https://goo.gl/UkTCQjSubscribe here: https://goo.gl/Smh...

              Last edited by eaglewood; 07-04-2016, 07:25 AM.

              Comment

              • ahn
                Senior Member
                • Jul 2012
                • 293

                Came really late to the party that Opeth released a new album (2 years ago?? ) There's something about Opeth's... chord progressions (?? sorry I'm really not down with the musical lingo) or something that actually makes my whole body almost vibrate with auditory pleasure in a way that no other band does to me. Anyway I have River on repeat right now especially in the studio.

                some do it fast, some do it better in smaller amounts.

                Comment

                • gustavobradley
                  Member
                  • Jun 2016
                  • 53

                  I was never really in to their newer stuff aside from a few songs, but I agree that there's just something about Opeth that sets them apart from other progressive DM. Watershed is still one of my favourite metal albums, even if I don't listen to it much anymore.

                  Comment

                  • ahn
                    Senior Member
                    • Jul 2012
                    • 293

                    Originally posted by gustavobradley View Post
                    I was never really in to their newer stuff aside from a few songs, but I agree that there's just something about Opeth that sets them apart from other progressive DM. Watershed is still one of my favourite metal albums, even if I don't listen to it much anymore.
                    Oh yeah Watershed is brilliant. I think Ghost Reveries is my favourite... but I've had no problem with their progression into this more melodic, clean-vocals territory. To my ears, Akerfeldt has just such a magical and expressive voice and vocal range, no matter how he's expressing the lyrics it's always so remarkably aurally pleasing - from the growling, guttural to the dulcet and honeyed. But that's not even the something... some of those tortured and triumphant guitars - I can feel them literally reverberate in my chest. It's pretty emotional.
                    some do it fast, some do it better in smaller amounts.

                    Comment

                    • Slub
                      Junior Member
                      • Jan 2015
                      • 9

                      If we're talking Opeth, I think Still Life and Heritage are my two favourite albums, the former having some magnificent cadences. I've seen them live 3 times at least and have at 4 shirts... in fact my first EVER band shirt at the age of 14 was Ghost Reveries. There is no show banter on earth like Akerfeldt's humour.

                      Comment

                      • ahn
                        Senior Member
                        • Jul 2012
                        • 293

                        Originally posted by Slub View Post
                        If we're talking Opeth, I think Still Life and Heritage are my two favourite albums, the former having some magnificent cadences. I've seen them live 3 times at least and have at 4 shirts... in fact my first EVER band shirt at the age of 14 was Ghost Reveries. There is no show banter on earth like Akerfeldt's humour.
                        Oh man if we're talking about tortured guitars (were we? No only I was...) the solo towards the end of The Devil's Orchard is an all-time favourite.
                        Can you believe I've never seen Opeth live? It really upsets me. In 2011 I actually had tickets to see them but then I got offered a free trip to Malaysia so I went overseas instead ahahaha. They came back here in 2014 I think, nobody would go with me - I've always said I'd go to a NIN gig on my own but I just didn't feel like I could go to Opeth alone. Maybe because I've never been to one and I don't know what the crowd is like.
                        some do it fast, some do it better in smaller amounts.

                        Comment

                        • Slub
                          Junior Member
                          • Jan 2015
                          • 9

                          Originally posted by ahn View Post
                          Oh man if we're talking about tortured guitars (were we? No only I was...) the solo towards the end of The Devil's Orchard is an all-time favourite.
                          Can you believe I've never seen Opeth live? It really upsets me. In 2011 I actually had tickets to see them but then I got offered a free trip to Malaysia so I went overseas instead ahahaha. They came back here in 2014 I think, nobody would go with me - I've always said I'd go to a NIN gig on my own but I just didn't feel like I could go to Opeth alone. Maybe because I've never been to one and I don't know what the crowd is like.
                          Enough to see cops with sniffer dogs outside the venue with 8 people in tow the first time... Generally its equal parts death metal kids, older prog heads that I see at every show, hardcore scenesters looking to mosh and a lot of stoners, lotta old couples standing up the back. I got trampled pretty hard in the circle pit to the end Demon of the Fall I think once but for a metal show very very tame. First time I saw them they had a set with no screaming, very psychedelic visuals and such and they played the entire heritage album end to end - not really any moshing.

                          Comment

                          • Verdandi
                            Senior Member
                            • Mar 2012
                            • 499

                            lavender menace

                            Comment

                            • amulet
                              Member
                              • Apr 2015
                              • 39

                              I'm really digging Lone's new album 'levitate' - it's been on heavy rotation for me since its release in May.

                              It's definitely not his best work, but a great addition to his discography & holds up against 'Reality Testing' & 'Emerald Fantasy Tracks' for sure.

                              Comment

                              • applecrisp
                                Senior Member
                                • Jun 2013
                                • 104

                                I've seen Opeth 3 times live...Once during their 15-year anniversary at Town Hall, when they played songs in chronological order from all of their albums; once during their 20-year anniversary when they played Blackwater Park in it's entirety from start to finish and then another full set and encore of songs from other records (i thought my girlfriend at the time was about to kill me at that one) and once during the Damnation tour when I wasn't really into them.

                                Blackwater Park is a very special album to me. I listened to it constantly during a few years of college and based one of my first real successful design projects on it.

                                I stopped listening to them after Ghost Reveries, maybe I should try some of the newer stuff? I'm really out of the loop on them now...

                                Comment

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