Anika/ Exploded View

    Gritty urban, noir with roots in Bristol trip hop.  In 2010 Anika a dark spot within dark hmm adjacent music released her self-titled LP of mostly covers. I saw her play Empty Bottle the fall of 2011.  This artist was originally a political journalist and poet who spent her time between Bristol England, and Berlin.  Hmm, Bristol....home of trip hop, Massive Attack....Portishead.  Its making sense. Bristol is the right breeding ground. The right climate, soil, etc. I saw her at Empty Bottle three times. Her covers are so unrecognizable to me. Really turns things into hers. Roughly its as if Portishead covered the music with Anika's deep otherworldly voice. She did work with members from that band for this LP, so that is not a surprise. I really thought Masters Of War was hers and not Bob Dylan's.  In The City by Chromatics originally, gets the Anika muscle car custom makeover you did not know it needed.  All y'all  who like  Suicide Commando's BTK I just caught dancing to He Hit Me.  That's Anika's cover from 2013 single. And don't make me bust out the R Kelly karaoke bar footage. Yeah....more of y'all than I thought....how embarrassing.  Another noteworthy cover Sadness Hides The Sun originally from Greta Ann. Is this one bleak. The original brings with it the outdoor scent and chill of a scary campfire story.  Ms Anika channels her inner Ian Curtis to adapt it's darkness to an urban space. You dance to this with the same abandon as a Joy Division track. I was so close to assuming it was not a cover.
  Music that is formulaic does not ever hit the spot it intends. Anika for me is not, even when she performs covers. She has a recognizable signature that she imposes and also creates with her own original tracks. The bass is fat, aggressive and hits your urge to dance like its a gag reflex. It's sleek urban noir that makes you want to move, and its amazing that she is not....taken by her own music. This I say about her work with Exploded View as well. It feels like a natural extension. I took home two releases under Sacred Bones Records when she played Empty Bottle November 2018, the latest Obey(2018) and the self-titled debut recorded in 2015.  For these projects she went all the way to Mexico City. It amazes me the international path this artist with her music has forged. I mean fucking wow girl!  Noteworthy for me are Disco Glove, No More Parties In The Attic, Orlando...let the others from the debut sink slowly, they are worth it. Dark Stains, and Letting Go Of Childhood Dreams on Obey are excellent as well.     
  She is very stoic when performing, fascinating.......she stands there like a vulcan Saul Goodman announcing bingo numbers.  Its not a complaint. How she performs makes her so mysterious. And just as this part of her image begins to solidify, the substance of this image shifts. Her eyes widen...tiny movements that express so much.  Then she gets off stage, walks around the audience as she performs!  These visuals spark and sustain the moment for the audience.  I think she even performed some of her poetry, with her music playing behind her. It seemed that way.  She did this the last two visits to Chicago. Spellbinding and unexpected.
      We have packed dog years of crazy since 2011. And let's not talk about what hit the fan since 2016. We know. That makes that first performance, a different...even a slightly more innocent world away. The other two gigs I went to see Anika was within these last 6 months.  In November 2018 she came with her fellow bandmates of Exploded View.  And she came back by herself January 2019. Iconic shows for me, concert therapy. How else are you going to fight the sadness that hides the sun than by dancing to a fucking song about it.
Zig