ANOHNI (Antony + Oneohtrix Point Never + Hudson Mohawke)

tellthemstories · Postby **tellthemstories** » Thu Mar 10, 2016 11:30 am

makes me very uncomfortable.
that was the purpose, wasn't it?

no sorry not in the way it was intended maybe, don't come at me with the 'it's meant to be shocking' bs. this is completely inappropriate. the immeasurable suffering of rural yemeni or pakistani people should not be a catchy 'edgy' song lyric for a rich white pop singer. i'm so disappointed. make the song explicitly political or don't mention drone bombing. i see what she tried to do but i really don't feel it is successful or respectful.

The track debuted during Annie Mac’s BBC Radio program. ANOHNI herself was a guest on the show, and she revealed that the lyrics are from the perspective of a young girl whose family has been killed in a drone attack. Looking up at the sky, all she wants is to join them in similar fashion. The dark topic is juxtaposed with music ANOHNI called “sort of a dance song.” Heavy synths rain down and shatter on top of a hollow, deep heartbeat rhythm that pulses like an HRM. “Blow me from the mountains/ And into the sea,” ANOHNI sings in her distinctly operatic voice. “Blow my head off/ Explode my crystal guts.”

wtf right does she have speaking in the place of a drone attack victim? i'm sorry, i am disappointed in this.

edited to add* i should probably not be so harsh initially, cos i guess for the average person who never really thinks about drone strikes very much, this will be so shocking and amazing like 'wow what a powerful idea to take a pop song aesthetic and fuse it with this tragic issue!'
but personally as someone who has spent a lot of time in the arab world and talking about middle east politics with the people who are directly affected by such issues, it just seems very tacky and disrespectful.
perhaps i will warm to it in time though. i get the feeling this whole album is going to be very provocative, and that is something i normally have a lot of time for.
but it has to be like, m.i.a. provocative, not madonna provocative. and i just feel like this was little bit too much of the latter...

tofu · Postby **tofu** » Thu Mar 10, 2016 1:29 pm

but it has to be like, m.i.a. provocative, not madonna provocative. and i just feel like this was little bit too much of the latter...

I'm not sure i understand 100 % what you mean. pop music maybe can never "satisfy" the seriousness of a topic. but that doesn't mean it's wrong or doesn't help.

for example you could argue that m.i.a.'s "bad girl" video is also inappropriate. she's also a very rich artist (who worked with madonna and was married to a multi millionaire and worked with Versace) who made a stereotypical video about women rights in saudi arabia ??

why should "m.i.a. provocative" be good and anohni be bad ??

(btw. I'm a big m.i.a. fan)

tellthemstories · Postby **tellthemstories** » Thu Mar 10, 2016 1:51 pm

but it has to be like, m.i.a. provocative, not madonna provocative. and i just feel like this was little bit too much of the latter...
I'm not sure i understand 100 % what you mean. pop music maybe can never "satisfy" the seriousness of a topic. but that doesn't mean it's wrong or doesn't help.

for example you could argue that m.i.a.'s "bad girl" video is also inappropriate. she's also a very rich artist (who worked with madonna and was married to a multi millionaire and worked with Versace) who made a stereotypical video about women rights in saudi arabia ??

why should "m.i.a. provocative" be good and anohni be bad ??

(btw. I'm a big m.i.a. fan)

because it's about power balance and representation. m.i.a. was taking stereotypes and flipping them. putting women in the driving seats of saudi stunt drivers is not stereotypical, it is empowering. she worked closely with arab artists on the video. whereas madonna writes "malala" on her back above her thong and cheapens everything malala fought for. that was what i meant with the m.i.a./madonna comparison

the problem with this anohni lyric for me is that anohni has enough agency as an artist to represent drone strike victims differently, with a bit more nuance i mean. not to mention it's quite tasteless to assume a girl who lost her family in drone strikes would 'want to die', when in reality they would probably want to keep going and fight for their rights. like the girl who went all the way to washington and appeared at the senate.

tofu · Postby **tofu** » Thu Mar 10, 2016 2:22 pm

because it's about power balance and representation. m.i.a. was taking stereotypes and flipping them. putting women in the driving seats of saudi stunt drivers is not stereotypical, it is empowering. she worked closely with arab artists on the video. whereas madonna writes "malala" on her back above her thong and cheapens everything malala fought for. that was what i meant with the m.i.a./madonna comparison

the problem with this anohni lyric for me is that anohni has enough agency as an artist to represent drone strike victims differently, with a bit more nuance i mean. not to mention it's quite tasteless to assume a girl who lost her family in drone strikes would 'want to die', when in reality they would probably want to keep going and fight for their rights. like the girl who went all the way to washington and appeared at the senate.

your point about madonna I can understand !

anohni is a political artist. i don't believe she uses the topic to sell more records. i think she really wants to talk about this and i'm not sure why she shouldn't be allowed to...

i think the lyrics are quit abstract and maybe her statement on the radio was a bit short and it would be maybe good if she could talk about this more detailed.

when she says that the girl in the song "wants to die" she is only talking about the fictional girl in the song. this is of course not a statement about all the victims of drone strikes.

Anak · Postby **Anak** » Thu Mar 10, 2016 6:35 pm

I have not yet listened to/watched Drone Bomb Me, so I might be missing something, but from what I see here, I find the lyrics a bit unnerving too

the immeasurable suffering of rural yemeni or pakistani people should not be a catchy 'edgy' song lyric for a rich white pop singer. i'm so disappointed.
the lyrics are from the perspective of a young girl whose family has been killed in a drone attack. Looking up at the sky, all she wants is to join them in similar fashion.

This point I agree with mostly. The lyrics don't exact seem to be "I'm shedding light on this horrible thing happening" but rather "I'm playing around with the concept of something to explore my own feelings" which isn't exactly something to use this 'perspective' for.

anohni is a political artist. i don't believe she uses the topic to sell more records. i think she really wants to talk about this and i'm not sure why she shouldn't be allowed to...

i think the lyrics are quit abstract and maybe her statement on the radio was a bit short and it would be maybe good if she could talk about this more detailed.

when she says that the girl in the song "wants to die" she is only talking about the fictional girl in the song. this is of course not a statement about all the victims of drone strikes.

I don't believe she would use drone strikes to sell records either! I don't think she would do anything like this intentionally/maliciously, however that doesn't make it ok. Maybe it is that she hasn't spoken about it enough.

Somewhat unrelated to your last point, but oftentimes works of fiction perpetuating stereotypes (Although this isn't really one, it still applies) may be just works of fiction, it doesn't do well for the stereotype. Where is the represenation?

4 Degrees was a political climate change song, this just seems... different. Having said that, I'm not quite sure what to expect from the rest of the songs on the album. It hasn't exactly put me off though.

tellthemstories · Postby **tellthemstories** » Thu Mar 10, 2016 7:04 pm

yeah, i completely don't believe she is doing it to sell records, or just to be shocking. i know that she is a political artist and i love her for that, and i kind of get what she is doing, fusing an ethereal electro pop song with lyrics about something so brutal, to create a shocking contrast, to shock people into considering such a topic. i just don't know if it's been entirely successful because i think it's a bit too simplistic. then again perhaps if it was more detailed it would have felt laboured. either way, doing something like this is very tricky and risky, and it certainly could have been a lot worse too, so i guess we shouldn't complain too much. but yeah, something about it still makes me a bit uneasy.

Anak · Postby **Anak** » Sun Mar 20, 2016 10:54 pm

https://anohni.bandcamp.com/album/hopelessness
Available for preorder on Bandcamp now

martin · Postby **martin** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 7:32 am

https://anohni.bandcamp.com/album/hopelessness
Available for preorder on Bandcamp now

thanks! cocorosie on the track 'violent men'

but it seems no björk...

error · Postby **error** » Tue May 03, 2016 10:45 pm

Just listened to the album twice… amazing! Favorite tracks so far: 'I Don't Love You Anymore' and 'Obama'.

mrain · Postby **mrain** » Tue May 03, 2016 10:48 pm

Hmmm donde?

Just listened to the album twice… amazing! Favorite tracks so far: 'I Don't Love You Anymore' and 'Obama'.

martin · Postby **martin** » Wed May 04, 2016 6:40 am

Hmmm donde?

Just listened to the album twice… amazing! Favorite tracks so far: 'I Don't Love You Anymore' and 'Obama'.

dondequiera...

btw, does anyone know who are the other faces (except from Anohni) on the cover of HOPELESSNESS?

stavaas · Postby **stavaas** » Wed May 04, 2016 8:40 am

Yeah, this is my favorite by her...EVER. I live her first two albums, but then she kinda started to bore me cuz it was just more of the same.

Hopelessness on the other hand feels super fresh. I'm officially in love with Anohni again

mrain · Postby **mrain** » Wed May 04, 2016 11:16 am

Hmmm donde?

Just listened to the album twice… amazing! Favorite tracks so far: 'I Don't Love You Anymore' and 'Obama'.

dondequiera...

btw, does anyone know who are the other faces (except from Anohni) on the cover of HOPELESSNESS?

i know im wondering too

error · Postby **error** » Wed May 04, 2016 12:43 pm

It's Liya Kebede. The photographs were taken by Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin.

Anohni (an older 'Antony' portrait):

The portrait of Liya was probably taken during this session:

Inez & Vinoodh combined the two…

martin · Postby **martin** » Wed May 04, 2016 3:22 pm

^thanks for that. there must be more though... e.g. one with a half open mouth where you can see the front teeth

tellthemstories · Postby **tellthemstories** » Wed May 04, 2016 4:21 pm

just given it a listen, very good stuff

error · Postby **error** » Wed May 04, 2016 9:05 pm

^thanks for that. there must be more though... e.g. one with a half open mouth where you can see the front teeth

Just two faces. Those 'teeth' are part of Liya's photo. This photo isn't the one I posted earlier, but probably taken at the same photo session and probably an unpublished shot.

Burnface · Postby **Burnface** » Thu May 05, 2016 12:29 pm

I found the album a bit meh... I love the singles, but the rest of the songs pale in comparison.

I really like "Obama", though.

error · Postby **error** » Thu May 05, 2016 12:59 pm

Obama is the best track imho. Plus: I Don't Love You Anymore, Obama and Violent Men are the the most Björkish songs.

martin · Postby **martin** » Thu May 05, 2016 5:02 pm

Pitchfork: 9.0

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21819-hopelessness/

Animal · Postby **Animal** » Thu May 05, 2016 5:13 pm

¡YES!

Voltagenic · Postby **Voltagenic** » Thu May 05, 2016 6:44 pm

I think the whole album's exceptionally strong. 'Obama' is indeed a highlight but lyrically and musically it's all very powerful. I've listened to it three times since it arrived this afternoon.

I was surprised to get a CD copy included - much better than a crappy MP3 download voucher. Both the vinyl and the CD seem quite loud, though.

error · Postby **error** » Thu May 05, 2016 8:49 pm

Digital booklet… all the lyrics in many languages.

Björk gets a thank you in the credits… and the cover also incorporates a photo of… surprise… Naomi Campbell. So three faces indeed!

Peterican · Postby **Peterican** » Thu May 05, 2016 10:53 pm

how did i become a virus?

tellthemstories · Postby **tellthemstories** » Fri May 06, 2016 2:38 am

disappointed there are no arabic lyrics!

martin · Postby **martin** » Fri May 06, 2016 9:05 am

Digital booklet… all the lyrics in many languages.

Björk gets a thank you in the credits… and the cover also incorporates a photo of… surprise… Naomi Campbell. So three faces indeed!

Dr. Friedrich Meschede

http://www.kunsthalle-bielefeld.de/inde ... m/?lang=en

Anohni-exhibition in Bielefeld/Germany planned???

benjicoq · Postby **benjicoq** » Fri May 06, 2016 10:00 am

Digital booklet… all the lyrics in many languages.

Björk gets a thank you in the credits… and the cover also incorporates a photo of… surprise… Naomi Campbell. So three faces indeed!

the idea of translated lyrics is cool and well intended. but god are those google translated?
the french one is not great haha

m.thr.n · Postby **m.thr.n** » Fri May 06, 2016 10:10 am

Digital booklet… all the lyrics in many languages.

Björk gets a thank you in the credits… and the cover also incorporates a photo of… surprise… Naomi Campbell. So three faces indeed!
the idea of translated lyrics is cool and well intended. but god are those google translated?
the french one is not great haha

Blame monsieur Romain Burrel, whoever that is.

I was surprised to see that the Polish translation was actually done by a professional who specialises in translating songs/poetry. I am not a huge fan of his style but it's a solid job. The rhythm is fine and he managed to keep the rhymes, even though some of his word/phrasing choices seem cheesy or a bit dated to me - but they're not exactly sophisticated in the original version either, are they?

benjicoq · Postby **benjicoq** » Fri May 06, 2016 10:16 am

well they are not all excessively bad, but for example on 4 degrees, he tranlated it like it's 4 degrees celcius, period. not like it was a difference of 4 degrees. as if he did not understand the song meaning at all... that's bad.

but some other songs are ok

tellthemstories · Postby **tellthemstories** » Fri May 06, 2016 11:37 am

i'd be pretty pissed at james blake if i was anohni right now haha. they had may 6th booked as their release date for m o n t h s in advance....
and then yesterday blake surprise drops his new record at midnight.

Burnface · Postby **Burnface** » Fri May 06, 2016 12:36 pm

The Spanish translation of 4 degrees is missing the sky & breeze part... It's my fave one...

m.thr.n · Postby **m.thr.n** » Fri May 06, 2016 12:52 pm

i'd be pretty pissed at james blake if i was anohni right now haha. they had may 6th booked as their release date for m o n t h s in advance....
and then yesterday blake surprise drops his new record at midnight.

Death Grips dropped Bottomless Pit last night as well.

tellthemstories · Postby **tellthemstories** » Fri May 06, 2016 1:24 pm

i'd be pretty pissed at james blake if i was anohni right now haha. they had may 6th booked as their release date for m o n t h s in advance....
and then yesterday blake surprise drops his new record at midnight.
Death Grips dropped Bottomless Pit last night as well.

so much good music on one day i have work to do argh!!

faber · Postby **faber** » Fri May 06, 2016 7:18 pm

so this week was basically

anohni
james blake
death grips
radiohead

m.thr.n · Postby **m.thr.n** » Fri May 06, 2016 7:52 pm

so this week was basically

anohni
james blake
death grips
radiohead

In general this past month or so has been too much to handle musically-speaking.

BTW there's a short clip of heavily made-up Johanna Constantine posing to "Hopelessness" on ANOHNI's Facebook page. An upcoming video? Tour projection?

martin · Postby **martin** » Sat May 07, 2016 9:44 pm

omg... I was right... there's gonna be an Ahnoni-exhibition in Bielefeld/Germany...

http://pitchfork.com/news/65325-anohni- ... h-exhibit/

tofu · Postby **tofu** » Sun May 08, 2016 9:30 am

I'm happy for her and Bielefeld .... but Bielefeld is really the most boring "small" town in Germany

and quit far from a lot of bigger cities :-/

but on the other hand it's great for the people and Bielefeld - and not every art exhibition has to be in Berlin/Hamburg/köln/münchen....

faber · Postby **faber** » Mon May 09, 2016 2:21 pm

Finally got time to properly listen to it!

It's magnificient. Apart from 4 Degrees and Drone Bomb Me which are incredible, i'm having a blast with Why Did You Separate Me from the Earth? and Crisis

Least fav is actually Obama but maybe I should give it more listen

One of my burning questions is : will the Johnsons be back again? And if so, they will be called Anohni & the Johnsons or keep the old name?

#firstworldproblems

Anak · Postby **Anak** » Mon May 09, 2016 6:36 pm

Maybe they'll change their name too? Anohni & the Johnis

m.thr.n · Postby **m.thr.n** » Mon May 09, 2016 7:07 pm

Anohni hinted in some interview that the Johnsons are unlikely to reunite as everyone is busy with other projects and it has been like that for a while now.

Dot · Postby **Dot** » Mon May 09, 2016 8:30 pm

Damn this album is fantastic! The singles are obviously the highlights, I also love "I Don't Love You Anymore" and "Hopelessness". Overall it's a very heavy album lyrically, I wasn't expecting such album from Anohni, even though I wasn't familiar with her previous records. But a song about Obama?

Which btw I'm surprised so many people love it, I like that it's such a weird song, but the fact that it's not very harmonic makes it hard to like imo

Oh and I'm so glad there's a version of the lyrics in Portuguese!!! And it's European Portuguese!!!! Not Brazilian

(yes, there's a difference)

Peterican · Postby **Peterican** » Mon May 09, 2016 9:11 pm

it's such a weird song, but the fact that it's not very harmonic makes it hard to like imo

whew! ok. so i'm not the only one. i don't care for this album at all, really though. maybe it'll click for me later... there's just a lot of other good stuff out right now for me to give this much more effort than i already have.

mrain · Postby **mrain** » Wed May 11, 2016 8:03 am

i apologize for the photos (if it is graphic)

whenever im listening to the song 'crisis', i feel emoptional.......

i always think of the music video would consist of this

since the instrumentals sounds like a gun, machine gun firing, bombings,

INTRO

stanza 1-bridge

..when the trumpet instrumental starts.. i think of slow mo of people crying

ends with a machine gun firing

obviously she probably will think of something else that is clever than having a graphic music video like this.

Dot · Postby **Dot** » Fri May 13, 2016 11:29 pm

I'm kind of obsessed with this album. The title track is just absolutely genius imo
I've also grown to love "Obama"

Me · Postby Me » Mon May 16, 2016 2:01 am

Maybe at some point of thisthread someone mentioned it, but I couldn't find it, really. Why did he change his neame or the band's? I don't know the reasons and i would like to know. Also, what does the new name mean?

Talknig about the album... It's really good. Very different, but it's lovely.

martin · Postby **martin** » Mon May 16, 2016 7:02 am

Maybe at some point of thisthread someone mentioned it, but I couldn't find it, really. Why did he change his neame or the band's? I don't know the reasons and i would like to know. Also, what does the new name mean?

Talknig about the album... It's really good. Very different, but it's lovely.

it's a metamorphosis & there are no players of the johnsons on this album...

btw, it's: "why did she change her name or the band's?"... maybe this makes it a little clearer...

error · Postby **error** » Mon May 16, 2016 9:03 am

'The Johnsons' were never a specific group of musicians. Sure there were early members, like Julia Kent and Rob Moose, but Antony has also performed with 'The Johnsons' being various orchestras and even a highly skilled jazz band. The current Johnsons are OPN and Hudson Mohawke… but the're not being named the Johnsons anymore. Antony did not change his band name into Anohni, she has changed her name to Anhoni and is performing under her new name.

Me · Postby Me » Mon May 16, 2016 2:23 pm

Maybe at some point of thisthread someone mentioned it, but I couldn't find it, really. Why did he change his neame or the band's? I don't know the reasons and i would like to know. Also, what does the new name mean?

Talknig about the album... It's really good. Very different, but it's lovely.
it's a metamorphosis & there are no players of the johnsons on this album...

btw, it's: "why did she change her name or the band's?"... maybe this makes it a little clearer...

Is she now completely identified as a woman? As far as I knew, she was more androgyny. When did she express that?

Me · Postby Me » Mon May 16, 2016 2:28 pm

'The Johnsons' were never a specific group of musicians. Sure there were early members, like Julia Kent and Rob Moose, but Antony has also performed with 'The Johnsons' being various orchestras and even a highly skilled jazz band. The current Johnsons are OPN and Hudson Mohawke… but the're not being named the Johnsons anymore. Antony did not change his band name into Anohni, she has changed her name to Anhoni and is performing under her new name.

Thanks!

m.thr.n · Postby **m.thr.n** » Mon May 16, 2016 2:44 pm

Is she now completely identified as a woman? As far as I knew, she was more androgyny. When did she express that?

She has identified as transgender since childhood but “cowardice and shame” prevented her from asking people to call her “she”. “‘She’ used to make my skin crawl,” she says now. “Within a gay context it can be used very snidely: to contain trans people and to denigrate other men. But working and socialising with women, and doing [campaign group] Future Feminism, empowered me in the feminine, and I could accept that it was OK to be the way I am. But I don’t feel emphatically female, it’s more subtle than that.”

[x]