Exploded View – 7th Level Music

Review: Anika – Change

Dreamy. Sexy. Mysterious. Alluring. Distant. Intimate. Psychedelic. Stylish. All of those adjectives could sum up Anika‘s fine new album, Change. Or they could not. Those could all be projections one puts upon the record as it shape-shifts across its span.

The opening bass and beats of “Finger Pies” sets you off on a train across Western Europe late at night and has you noticing a beautiful person across the dining car that may be a spy, murderess, hitman, painter, or tourist looking for adventure. “My intention is my intention,” Anika sings. We don’t need to know. She’s keeping that secret for now, which only makes her more intriguing.

“Critical” is a tale of danger, both of love and of delusion, told with processed dance beats. “I always give my man the last word. I always give him what he deserves, but don’t forget that little twist of cyanide in his little gift,” she sings as futuristic synths build around her like a digital cloak. The album’s title track is possibly the most uplifting song of the year. Anika encourages us to move away from illusions and comfortable patterns of behavior in order to conquer fear and embrace one another. “We could do well to listen sometimes, and not just shout around things we know nothing about. But I think we have it all inside. I think we can learn from each other. I think we can change.” It’s a great anthem for 2021 and beyond.

Anika continues that call to action on the somewhat industrial “Naysayer” with lyrics like “Youngblood, I’m calling on you. Stand, standing tall and take what’s yours. Time, time to run the show.” “Sand Witches” is downright creepy with its warped bass and Anika’s lyrics about rivers running red with blood in England – a country she barely recognizes anymore. “Never Coming Back” is a synthwave ode to things that have slipped away from us without us even noticing (“I saw the signs. I chose to ignore them. I saw all the warnings. I saw them all.”).

“Rights” is a call to women everyone to reclaim their power (“Tall, small, tiny, full and feel your power!”). “Freedom” has Anika expressing her power underneath a Terminator film score-like synth sizzle. One can’t help but think the lyrics of “I’m not being silenced by anyone…I’m not being silenced by my learned mutism…I’m not being silenced, least by you.” reflect on something that happened over the last decade. Changes is, after all, Anika’s first solo record in eleven years. The closing track, “Wait for Something,” is a mostly acoustic heartbreaker with Anika telling a tale of how she waited and waited “for something to come…for something to break through,” but realizing that holding onto the past only drags you to death.

Anika had a lot on her mind from the last decade, and she let it all out on Changes. She has spoken about how all the lyrics of the album were written on the spot without a filter or second thoughts. There is optimism and sorrow, but few pangs of regret. We could all do well to follow her example and let go of things dragging us down into a place we think is comfortable but is actually a tomb.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Anika shares “Rights” from upcoming album – “Change” – due July 23, 2021.

Anika – the project of Berlin-based musician Annika Henderson – shares the new single/video, “Rights,” from Change, her first new album in over a decade, out July 23rd on Sacred Bones and Invada. Following “Change” and “Finger Pies,” “Rights” drones with Anika’s beautifully plaintive voice and oscillating percussion. In her words, the song is about “turning the tables, giving power to those who normally feel disempowered. This song is about unification not division. This song is about female (/queer/non-binary/marginalised communities) empowerment – the joining of forces, not pitted against each other. This song is about wanting to escape reality but then we can never truly escape it, it will always be there to collect its dues. We can only ever achieve temporary escape. The better option is to bring whatever we want into reality.” During the song’s peak, Anika chants encouragingly: “Feel the power // feel the power // show me power.”

The accompanying video, directed by Anika and Sabrina Labis, features Anika and Mueran Humanos’s Carmen Burguess. The video toggles between the virtual and real worlds, playing with the ideas of dreams and displacement, and seeking places of empowerment. Anika elaborates: “At the end of the video, the memory of the feelings, the knowledge that it was possible, remained, that is enough to start bringing it into our own life. We all have rights.” Co-director Sabrina Labis adds: “Making videos is my way to feel power. The power of changing perspectives, escaping conservative structures and landing on a very close and free power-planet where everything is possible. Press play, take off and enjoy.”

Watch Anika’s Video for “Rights”

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Anika releases title track from her upcoming album – “Change.”

Anika – the project of Berlin-based musician Annika Henderson who is also a founding member of Exploded View – announces Change, her first new album in over a decade, out July 23rd on Sacred Bones & Invada, and shares the “Change” video directed by Sven Gutjahr who also directed the video for recent single “Finger Pies.” The follow-up to cult favorite Anika (2010), Change is beautifully fraught. The intimacy of its creation and a palpable sense of global anxiety are seemingly baked into the album’s DNA. Spread across nine tracks, the central feeling of the record is one of heightened frustration buoyed by guarded optimism. The songs offer skittering, austere electronic backdrops reminiscent of classic Broadcast records or Hi Scores-era Boards of Canada, playing them against Anika’s remarkable voice—Nico-esque, beautifully plaintive, and—in regards to the record’s subject matter—totally resolute.

Having worked collaboratively in the past with the likes of BEAK> and Exploded View, Change was ultimately the product of necessity. After recording the initial ideas by herself at Berlin’s Klangbild Studios, Anika was joined by Exploded View’s Martin Thulin, who co-produced the album and played some live drums and bass. “This album had been planned for a little while and the circumstances of its inception were quite different to what had been expected,” says Anika. “This colored the album quite significantly. The lyrics were all written there on the spot. It’s a vomit of emotions, anxieties, empowerment, and of thoughts like—How can this go on? How can we go on?”

Recorded at a time when literally everyone in the world was being forced to take stock, rethink, and reimagine their own place in the cosmos of things, Anika provides the wizened perspective of an outsider. It’s a perspective that is not lost on the British ex-pat and former political journalist, and despite the subject matter and the circumstances around its creation, Change itself is ultimately a treatise on optimism. The title track presents the album’s message writ large: “I think we can change, we all have things to learn, about ourselves and about each other.” To end the record on such a sanguine note might be one of Change’s most revolutionary gestures.

“There’s a lot of stuff I want to change,” says Anika. “Some things I sat down and decided last year, I had to change about myself and my life. Sometimes it feels helpless because the things we want to change are so huge and out of our control. Starting with yourself is always a good place. I think we can change.”
Watch “Change” Video

Watch “Finger Pies” Video

Pre-order ChangeChange Tracklist
1. Finger Pies
2. Critical
3. Change
4. Naysayer
5. Sand Witches
6. Never Coming Back
7. Rights
8. Freedom
9. Wait For Something Anika European Tour Dates:
Sept. 10 – Offenbach, DE @ Hafen2
Sept. 12 – Dunkerque, FR @ Les 4 Ecluses
Sept. 23 – Nancy, FR @ L’Autre Canal
Sept. 24 – Rouen, FR @ Le 106 Club

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Anika returns with first new music in eight years.

Anika – the project of Berlin-based musician Annika Henderson who is also a founding member of Exploded View – announces signing to Sacred Bones and returns with a new single/video, “Finger Pies.” Released in collaboration with Invada Records, this is Anika’s first new piece of music in 8 years, following her 2010 cult-favorite Anika, and the 2013 Anika EP. “Finger Pies” presents Anika’s alluring voice, which switches between singing and speaking over bass, waning brass, drums, and blares of synth. The accompanying video was co-directed by Anika with Sven Gutjahr (who has worked with Versace and Holly Herndon). The two had lived in the same apartment building in Neuköln, Berlin, during 2017 yet never met. Fate, and a bunch of people around a table 3,965 miles away brought them together for the video. It shows Anika effortlessly contemplating her adopted city with a cinematic coolness.

Anika elaborates: “A song that never had a name, like an artist that never had a face. Caught between roles, a jack of all trades, she slips between your fingers like a moment that never was, or was it? So many faces tailored to a myriad of occasions. Walls built between ourselves and the outside world. For protection. Passes grant access to another level. So where are you at? Those with all the keys, please remember, access comes with responsibility. Yet responsibility has been lost, like tissue paper in the rain, a battle without rules, to save face, exploit weakness, to save getting slayed, by the faceless generation. Welcome to the world of ‘Finger Pies.’”

When asked to describe the circumstances that influenced her beautifully fraught new work, Anika quickly articulates a set of feelings and unpredictable circumstances that are familiar to anyone who tried to make art—or simply tried to live through—the recent global pandemic. “It’s a moment caught in time,” she says.

“Finger Pies” is the first of more new music from Anika this year.

Watch “Finger Pies” Video

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Rewind Review: Exploded View – Summer Came Early (2017)

Mexico City’s Exploded View put out a four-song EP three years ago that’s perfect for this time of year when half of the world is approaching summer and the other half is approaching winter. Summer Came Early is the hope of everyone on the planet every year.

The opening title track drips like a lazy candle on a porch railing overlooking a warm beach. It sounds like a record being played in a distant apartment you can’t find, or something from a dream you had once with its smoky guitars, rattlesnake drums, and hypnotizing vocals from Anika Henderson.

“Forever Free” is like a story of a haunted house or at least the female ghost who lives there seeking to have a nice chat with anyone, or perhaps even take a living lover to bed. “Mirror of the Madman” has this cool 1960s swing beat to it while Henderson half-sings, half-tells the story of a mysterious figure she saw during a walk one day.

“You don’t say nothing at all,” Henderson sings / snarls on “You Got a Problem Son” as psychedelic guitar and garage rock drums swirl around her like the snakes on a caduceus symbol.

This EP can be a great way to start your summer days or one to escape the winter blues. It will alter your perception of what lies ahead and what is coiled around you.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Martin Thulin – Into the Light

Martin Thulin is part of the psychedelic / shoegaze band Exploded View, and his new solo album, Into the Light, is full of psychedelic and dreamy ruminations on death, life, impermanence, and presence.

Opening track “Not Afraid to Die” blends Velvet Underground guitars with 1980s synth wave keys to send you floating into whatever version of the afterlife you prefer – or at least out of your current troubled reality. “Here in My Room” adds some disco horns to create a cool lounge-rock track. The bass on “Amazonian Smoke” is post-punk, the synths are goth, and the drums are industrial. It all works. “Thin White Duchess” is, of course, a play on David Bowie‘s “Thin White Duke,” and Bowie touches are sprinkled throughout the track. I like the way Thulin filters his vocals to the low end when you think they’re going to come in at full volume and then slowly brings them back into the front.

The thick keys on “New Dawn Coming” start off side two of the record, and soft electro-beats slide into the room like a sultry lover. The smoky bass of “Day Out Day In” and Thulin’s echoing vocals bring Peter Murphy to mind, and I love the simple, clear piano compliments throughout it. They’re almost like drops of ice water falling onto you during a humid day.

The guitars on “Upstairs Room” sound like they have strings of taffy as Thulin sings about listening to the radio on a quiet, lonely night – even though he’s with his lover (who is mourning their mother’s death) in the same place. Church organ-like keys usher in “Silence You Forever” while Thulin’s vocals take on a raspy spoken word quality. “Your anger makes you so blind, you can’t see you’re being fooled. And when they finally take it over, you’ll have no voice at all,” he sings / chants. Good heavens, those are some prescient lyrics in 2020, aren’t they? The closer, “Amalgam,” sounds like a film noir score and brings to mind images of rain-coated alleys, shady business deals, femme fatales, and suitcases of money that needs laundered as soon as possible.

It’s a haunting record, a cool record, a smooth record, and an uplifting record. That’s a rare combination in any year.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Mr. Thulin!]

Review: Exploded View – Obey

International experimental musicians Exploded View (Annika Henderson hailing from Berlin and Hugo Quezada and Martin Thulin from Mexico City) explore themes of punishment and isolation (physical, mental, social) on their new album Obey.

They open with the instrumental “Lullaby,” which could be the opening theme to a Mario Bava movie, and then slide into the sultry “Open Road,” which could be the opening theme to David Lynch’s next movie. Henderson’s voice hypnotizes you within moments and Quezada and Thulin’s instrumentation ranges from weird lounge jazz to dreamwave. “Dark Stains” brings in krautrock bass and synths while Henderson sings about lost time and a lover’s deceptions.

“What would you do if your love was gone tomorrow and you never found the words to say?” Henderson asks on the haunting synthwave track “Gone Tomorrow,” in which Exploded View implores us to not wait and not to be afraid to find love. The unsettling title track is about obeying not only laws but also the unwritten rules of society (both in the flesh and online) which can get you ostracized if you don’t tow the line. Henderson’s voice seems to be on the outside of the song, like she’s being punished for not conforming. I can’t help but think of another filmmaker when hearing this track – John Carpenter. It seems to flow out of his film They Live.

“Sleepers” is one of the best synthwave tracks of the year, with buzzsaw guitars, sunlight-bright synths, dark bass, and Henderson’s vocals calling out to you through your dreams. “Letting Go of Childhood Dreams” is about the sometimes cold nature of reality. Again, Henderson’s vocals seem distant, almost like she’s fading away as the synths drift into every corner of the room.

The catchy “Raven Raven” is probably being blasted in goth dance clubs across Europe by now. If not, it should be. It’s perfect for dark rooms, make-out sessions, late night Metro rides, and catching the eyes of a raven-haired maiden as she looks at you over a cup of jet black espresso at 2am. “Come On Honey” brings in chaotic guitars and frenetic percussion while Henderson’s vocals keep us and her bandmates grounded (but just barely). The closing track, “Rant,” is appropriately urgent. Henderson implores us one last time to embrace life, love, and beauty. “Life could be so damn simple, if you let it,” she sings.

We’re too busy obeying, however. We’re obeying advertising, 24-hour news cycles, social media, and the expectations and opinions of others and not trusting our own minds, eyes, and hearts.

Stop obeying. Start living. That’s the message of Exploded View’s Obey.

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Exploded Views’ latest single, “Dark Stains,” is now available for your listening pleasure.

LISTEN TO EXPLODED VIEW’S “DARK STAINS,” NEW SINGLE OFF OBEY
OUT SEPTEMBER 28TH VIA SACRED BONES
https://youtu.be/B64K_3gkmPo

FIRST-EVER NORTH AMERICAN TOUR KICKS OFF OCTOBER 19TH

(photo credit – Exploded View)

“‘Dark Stains’ [is] a chaotic, sinister partner to their recent single ‘Sleepers’ — if that one was the sky, this is underground. A buried hunk of metal run into by a rototiller. Life! A banger!” — FADER

“’Raven Raven’ is darkly cinematic; its initial moments of creaking synthesizer and rattling floor tom unspool like a reel of degraded film, clicking and flickering images onto a looming screen. . . The pictures Exploded View offer may be grainy, but they’re just as grave and lasting.”
— Pitchfork

“‘Raven, Raven’ is a logical continuation of Exploded View, with the same beat-poet delivery from frontwoman Annika Henderson and tense kinetic energy from the instrumentalists, who sound a little like the members of Can jamming in Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s Black Ark Studios.” — SPIN

“Mysterious and claustrophobically groovy” — Brooklyn Vegan

“[‘Sleepers’] glides along on an eerie synth line — at times inviting and beautiful but then always threatening to take a turn into more discomfiting directions — while Henderson’s voice settles into this place where anxiety and fear and wonder seem to coexist. It’s a strange, beautiful composition.”
— Stereogum

Exploded View, the international project of Berlin-based lyricist/vocalist Annika Henderson, and Mexico City-based multi-instrumentalists Hugo Quezada and Martin Thulin, are gearing up for the release of their second full-length album, Obey, out September 28th on Sacred Bones, and first-ever North American tour. Previous “singles ‘Sleepers’ and ‘Raven Raven’ both showcase one of [Exploded View]’s greatest skills: luring listeners into its dreamlike songs with a strong groove, then revealing the dream is equally part nightmare” (AV Club). Now the trio present “Dark Stains,” “a song about a body who sees in themselves the errors of the past, yet flaunts behind the veils of inheritance and fails to take full responsibility for the present.” Annika described it in detail for FADER.

Leaving behind their live recording process and now a tight three-piece, Exploded View strike a special balance between precise and wild, unshackled and grounded, grooving and unhinged. The have a knack for making the esoteric feel accessible and crafting pop music out of seemingly raw consciousness. Recorded in Mexico City, the apocalyptic, yet soothing songs comprising Obey encompass all the classic dream motifs: intrigue, danger, ecstasy, hard to place, yet primordial visions, and a constant sense of movement.

Listen to Exploded View’s “Dark Stains” –
https://youtu.be/B64K_3gkmPo

Listen to “Raven Raven” –
https://youtu.be/Zl-1qPg8iuE

Watch “Sleepers” Visual –
https://youtu.be/C6SXE9R67Wg

Exploded View Tour Dates:
Fri. Oct. 19 – Dallas, TX @ Nasher Sculpture
Sat. Oct. 20 – Austin, TX @ The Parish
Mon. Oct. 22 – Phoenix, AZ @ Club Congress
Wed. Oct. 24 – San Diego, CA @ The Whistle Stop
Thu. Oct. 25 – Pomona, CA @ The Glass House
Fri. Oct. 26 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
Sun. Oct. 28 – San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
Mon. Oct. 29 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studio
Tue. Oct. 30 – Seattle, WA @ Vera Project
Wed. Oct. 31 – Vancouver, BC @ Fox Cabaret
Thu. Nov. 1 – Chicago, IL @ The Empty Bottle
Fri. Nov. 2 – Detroit, MI @ Deluxxx Fluxxx
Sat. Nov. 3 – Toronto, ON @ The Garrison
Mon. Nov. 5 – Montreal, QC @ Sala Rossa
Tue. Nov. 6 – Boston, MA @ Middle East
Thu. Nov. 8 – Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade
Fri. Nov. 9 – Philadelphia, PA @ PhilMOCA
Sat. Nov. 10 – Norfolk, VA @ Charlies American Cafe
Sun. Nov. 11 – Washington, DC @ DC9
Mon. Nov. 12 – Harrisburg, PA @ The Cathedral Room

Pre-order Obey:
via Sacred Bones – https://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/products/sbr209-exploded-view-obey
via Bandcamp – https://explodedview.bandcamp.com/album/obey

(Obey cover art)

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Exploded View releases “Sleeper” from upcoming album, “Obey,” out September 28th.

EXPLODED VIEW SHARE “SLEEPERS” WITH VISUAL,
NEW SINGLE OFF OBEY, OUT SEPTEMBER 28TH VIA SACRED BONES
https://youtu.be/C6SXE9R67Wg

FIRST-EVER NORTH AMERICAN TOUR KICKS OFF OCTOBER 19TH

(photo credit – Exploded View)

“Break free and fly above the clouds outside the lines that we were told were good for us.
Free yourself from your own prison. Remove the shackles of fear to find that the unknown is not so scary and can be full of precious discoveries (sometimes only possible during sleep). A constant trip comes to an abrupt and unresolved ending with the collapse and eerie shriek of the Arp Solina.” – Exploded View

Exploded View, the international project of Berlin-based Annika Henderson, and Mexico City-based Hugo Quezada and Martin Thulin, will release Obey, their second full-length album on September 28th on Sacred Bones. The apocalyptic, yet soothing songs comprising Obey encompass all the classic dream motifs: intrigue, danger, ecstasy, hard to place, yet primordial visions, and a constant sense of movement. After presenting lead single, “Raven Raven,” the trio now share “Sleepers” and an accompanying visual made by Annika. It’s “a song that very much feels as if it’s flying above the clouds, but is still looking down on desolation from that vantage point. The song glides along on an eerie synth line — at times inviting and beautiful but then always threatening to take a turn into more discomfiting directions — while Henderson’s voice settles into this place where anxiety and fear and wonder seem to coexist. It’s a strange, beautiful composition” (Stereogum).

Leaving behind their live recording process and now a tight three-piece, Exploded View strike a special balance between precise and wild, unshackled and grounded, grooving and unhinged. The have a knack for making the esoteric feel accessible and crafting pop music out of seemingly raw consciousness. This ability to make beautiful music that feels written beyond the veil is at the heart of what makes Exploded View so captivating, and it’s on full display all over Obey. Recorded in Mexico City, the album feels like a liberation of creative impulses and expression allowing the band to reach more mature sonic territories.

Exploded View will head out on their first-ever North American tour the month following the album’s release (all dates are below).

Watch “Sleepers” Visual –
https://youtu.be/C6SXE9R67Wg

Listen to “Raven Raven” –
https://youtu.be/Zl-1qPg8iuE

“’Raven Raven’ is darkly cinematic; its initial moments of creaking synthesizer and rattling floor tom unspool like a reel of degraded film, clicking and flickering images onto a looming screen. . .
The pictures Exploded View offer may be grainy, but they’re just as grave and lasting.”
– Pitchfork

“Mysterious and claustrophobically groovy” – Brooklyn Vegan

Pre-order Obey:
via Sacred Bones – https://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/products/sbr209-exploded-view-obey
via Bandcamp – https://explodedview.bandcamp.com/album/obey

(Obey cover art)

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Exploded View release “Raven Raven” ahead of full album due this September.

EXPLODED VIEW ANNOUNCE SOPHOMORE ALBUM, OBEY,
OUT SEPTEMBER 14TH VIA SACRED BONES, AND NORTH AMERICAN TOURLISTEN TO LEAD SINGLE, “RAVEN RAVEN”
https://youtu.be/Zl-1qPg8iuE

(photo credit – Exploded View)

“Exploded View is a splintered amalgam of post-punk, krautrock, psych, and funk—all of it drenched in dub echo and driven by the aim of staying engaged. Anika’s drawl crisscrosses
the album’s frenetic grooves unfazed, like a searchlight seeking a ship in a storm,
eyes wide open in vigilance.” – The AV Club, Albums of the Year

“Exploded View is the type of album that seeps into your soul. Consciously designed or not, it exposes various unpalatable truths about the way we live now and turns them
into frightening, spellbinding music.” – The Quietus

“As Anika’s voice floats above, the musicians forge taut grooves. Ramping up tension as it progresses, Exploded View builds until everything threatens to burst. But the group keeps it under control through calm, devout repetition.” – NPR Music

Exploded View, the international project of Welsh-bred, Berlin-based Annika Henderson and Mexico City-based Hugo Quezada (Robota) and Martin Thulin (Crocodiles), return with their second full-length album, Obey, out September 28th on Sacred Bones, and news of a fall North American tour. In conjunction with the album announcement, Exploded View present the spooky, hypnotic lead single, “Raven Raven,” of which the band comment, “Ever felt like someone is watching your every move? Your every twitch, your every sneeze? Stare back into the face of observation. Never give in to external control. You can break this.”

Leaving behind their live recording process and now a tight three-piece, Exploded View strike a special balance between precise and wild, unshackled and grounded, groovy and unhinged. They have a knack for making the esoteric feel accessible and crafting pop music out of seemingly raw consciousness. This ability to make beautiful music that feels written beyond the veil is at the heart of what makes Exploded View so captivating, and it’s on full display all over Obey. Recorded in Mexico City, the album feels like a liberation of creative impulses and expression allowing the band to reach more mature sonic territories.

Obey flows like a dream sequence with the aptly titled “Lullaby” opening the album; it slowly lures the listener into a lucid state, preparing them for the journey to come. The ten apocalyptic, yet soothing songs encompass all the classic dream motifs: intrigue, danger, ecstasy, hard to place, yet primordial visions, and a constant sense of movement.

Listen to Exploded View’s “Raven Raven” –
https://youtu.be/Zl-1qPg8iuEObey Tracklist:
1. Lullaby
2. Open Road
3. Dark Stains
4. Gone Tomorrow
5. Obey
6. Sleepers
7. Letting Go Of Childhood Dreams
8. Raven Raven
9. Come On Honey
10. Rant

Pre-order Obey:
via Sacred Bones – https://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/products/sbr209-exploded-view-obey
via Bandcamp – https://explodedview.bandcamp.com/album/obey

(Obey cover art)

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