Anonymi deals in drum’n'bass. While there are elements of ethnic folk, these are mostly restricted to some percussion timbres and the odd flourish from an accordian, koto or the like. Otherwise, it’s digital synthesis and rattling hyper-funk samples. In such a firmly established genre, an artist’s success largely comes down to what they can bring to the table which is new and exciting.
What Anonymi brings of note is an ability to layer rhythms with incredible intricacy. Much of the time across the album there are three or four different rhythm samples chattering away simultaneously. Yet due to clever filtering and stereo field placement, these rhythms never sound over the top or incoherent. Anonymi’s synth sounds can often hark back to the late 90s, drumm’n'bass music’s historical point of greatest impact, and this has the effect of sometimes dating the music. So too do the points when rhythms are left to lightly flit along. Much better are the moments when the accompanying music adds a depth or nastiness to proceedings. ‘Out Of The Woods’ includes off beat bass stabs and an element of distortion to the drum processing. ‘Rui-Shi’ has growling bottom end counterpointing what sounds like a heavily processed shakuhachi. There is also an interesting top end shimmer applied to many melodic samples. For example, ‘Macaca’ has swishing hihats fluttering around Japanese melodic flourishes, subtle piano motifs and then phasing, falling synth washes. When everything comes together, as in the previously mentioned track, or on album highlight, ‘Bodhisattva’ with its shifts in and out of half and double time, aggressive rhythmelodies and brooding bottom end, Monkeybotherer has the depth, the contrast of light and shade and the melodic presence to lift it beyond its influences.
Adrian Elmer
*
