Anika: Artist You Should Know

From KCRW DJ Mario Cotto:

Produced by Geoff Barrow of Portishead, newcomer Anika’s self-titled debut is reminiscent of one of this year’s earlier hydrophonic phenomenons, Gonjasufi.

Like that album, the production here culls from a variety of sounds from different spaces and times to craft something excellently post-genre and out of time. A combination of 50’s girl group, late 60’s pop jangle, with 70’s dub, with early 80’s No Wave-y attitude, it defies appropriate description.

To boot, it has a number of covers (The Pretenders, Bob Dylan, Yoko Ono) and original tracks set to throbbing, slow-burning beats, and a voice and delivery like the bastard pixie daughter of Alan Vega and Nico, the album has a stone-cold essence that is as graceful as it is menacing.

Stream “I Go To Sleep”:

Where Portishead’s femme fatale Beth Gibbons would croon in a way that would make you think twice about drinking the drink she’s handed you in an Otto Preminger movie kinda way, Anika Invada has a playful tone which teasingly invites you to go on a dangerous after-hours late-night walk through the meat-packing district which will end up with you being chased by cops, pimps, dealers, tigers, and robots…and you’ll wanna go.

“Anika” is out now on local label Stones Throw. And you can download the lush cover of The Pretenders’ “I Go to Sleep” (originally by The Kinks, of course) for FREEhere

– Mario Cotto