Recording: Anamai

Artist: Anamai

Song: Some State

Recorded at The Baby G, September 21, 2017.

Anamai - Some State

Billed as "a night dedicated to simplicity and unravelling," this was a beautifully-executed show, moving the music down from the stage and tampering with the standard set/break/set/break/set pattern to give the whole thing some continuous flow.

Typical of the night, David Psutka appeared on stage while Xuan Ye and David Jones were still filling the room with their dronefield and appeared at first to just be tuning up. The careful ear, however, would soon realize he was joining in with the pair, adding some textures while Anna Mayberry made her way on stage and got ready to play. Once the set proper had begun, the subtle interventions were returned, with David Jones using his gear to add some manipulations to the room sound, holding his vocal mic toward the stage and twisting dials on his pedals to add washes of reverb and more through his jury-rigged quadraphonic sound system. The duo on stage were literally difficult to watch as their lighting rig aimed gliding light-beams towards the crowd — which encouraged the crowd, mostly sitting peaceably on the floor, to look within instead. I was worried after the group's release show back in May that I might not get a chance to hear these songs again with such an attentive crowd, but this show proved me wrong.

[Anamai will be playing next weekend (Sunday, October 22nd) at The Dupe Shop.]