Back in August, we interviewed Brandon Smith, the sole member of The Anix, about his musical inspirations and his then upcoming album Shadow_Movement. Now unleashed upon the world in its entirety, Shadow_Movement is an electro-pop journey into the dirtiest/sleekest aspects of science fiction and music.
As someone who listens for pleasure to the musical equivalent of wires burning, imagine my surprise when I plugged into Shadow_Movement and it’s almost pop/rock sound and not only liked it but admire it. The Anix has created a sound that, by mixing elements of traditional electronic music with pop/rock, is both synthetically crisp and pleasantly rough. Plus, Smith has some solid vocals and well-written lyrics exploring ideas from interpersonal relationships to straight up resistance to the machine we find ourselves in. For a concrete example of this listen to This Machine embedded below, and check out our interview for a deep dive into the song itself. Clocking in at 15 tracks Shadow_Movement is a well-stocked album as well, giving you plenty of content for your bucks.
The most surprising elements of this album are when tracks start venturing into territory you weren’t expecting. The track Ghost kicked off with some very pleasant House music vibes, with wordless tracks like Cloud and Strategy X (both favorites of mine) following a similar style that just bleeds with a chill tech vibe. Contrast that against the no less chill (yet somehow paranoid) track Wasteland which has some of the most interesting sound manipulation and composition I’ve heard in a while. No two tracks sound alike, each bringing plenty of originality forward. And considering The Anix is a single person outfit, all of the ideas and creations being his own is very impressive.
Most of the album makes use of real instruments such as guitar and drum elements, giving the songs the bang and purr of a real flesh and blood band that electronic music can lack. But over that is some wonderfully crisp synthetic sounds we want and crave. And the vocals, again, are very strong with little electrical distortion giving a very human element to a genre of music that by default sounds machine made. These strengths, however, could turn people off before they dig in. Not everyone is into this type of music, shuttering at just the mention of ‘pop’ anywhere near their electronic music of choice. But get into it and broaden those horizons sunshine, The Anix is here to stay.
You can get a copy of The Anix’s new album, Shadow_Movement, here.
If you’d like to follow The Anix’s exploits, you can find him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and at his official website here.
3 Comments
Very impressed with the album as a whole. Much softer than my average tastes, but the album does a great job of transcending genres and giving the listener a lot to digest. Cant stop listening, and will definitely be on the lookout for more releases from this artist.