A playlist of Anohni’s favourite underground anthems
In the modern age, you cannot often be subject to something that truly takes your breath away. Music today is the messy product of innovation from decades past. That innovation creates genre, and those genres have merged and overlapped to create the contorted mix of styles we are subject to today. There is still music that sounds great, more than ever, in fact, but you can hear snippets and segments from those genre-defying artists embedded within it. However, some moments still take your breath away, and one of those moments in the modern age is the first time you listen to Anohni and The Johnsons.
If you have never listened to them, do yourself a favour and put on the song ‘Why Am I Alive Now?’ – there aren’t many musical experiences that can compare to it. Instrumentally, the track is complex and smooth, but the real shock comes when Anohni’s vocals come into play. Her voice is unlike anything ever before, packed with power but as fragile as the silence it breaks, a perfect dance between beauty and sadness.
A lot of music feels like a moment in time. You can hear some tracks and link them to the 1960s, ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, and no matter how they age, they remain a reflection of that moment in time. Anohni’s voice doesn’t feel like that. Rather than reflecting a moment in time, it reflects all of time, moments that transcend seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks and years. It’s pain and joy, happiness and sadness, wrapped into one and delivered to the masses.
Who are your influences when your style is so unique? It won’t come as a surprise to hear that Anohni adores a plethora of different artists and that those artists influence her life for different reasons. Different emotions and events justify a different song, to the point that the playlists she makes are as timeless and transcending as her music.
When asked about her favourite cover of song of all time, she offered up ‘Let My People Go’ by Diamanda Galas. When she was asked about the music she listened to when she was high, she said that it was ‘Satan’s Li’l Lamb’ by James F Murphy. The song she confessed to having on repeat was ‘I’m Set Free’ by Velvet Underground.
Her list of underground classics is also diverse. From industrial to soul, old school to modern, it’s all there, and it all makes complete sense. If you ever wanted a playlist of songs that represent different emotions and periods in music, you needn’t look any further than those offered up by Anohni.
More than anything else, though, you should also take some time to listen to Anohni and the Johnsons, who can create music that is unlike anything out there and is something from the modern age that sounds completely unique and genre-defying.
Anohni’s favourite underground anthems:
- Chris & Cosey – ‘Fire Trance/Dr John’
- Otis Redding – ‘Try a Little Tenderness’
- Attrition – ‘Monkey in a Bin’
- James F Murphy – ‘Satan’s Li’l Lamb’
- Selda Bağcan – ‘Gesi Bağlari’
- Donna Giles – ‘After the Sex’
- Diamanda Galás – ‘Let My People Go’
- Meng & Ecker – ‘Golden Showers’
- Marc and The Mambas – ‘Torment’
- Animal Feelings, Nomi Ruiz – ‘Chemical Love’
- Velvet Underground – ‘I’m Set Free’
