Anima Anonima @ Public Assembly
As I entered the home and studio of Brooklyn based band Anima Anonima, I was greeted with welcoming smiles, a beer, and homemade chips and salsa – and when I say homemade I mean chipotle peppers grown in their very own backyard. Hell yeah.
As we began to chat, I couldn’t stop thinking about the lack of pretension in the room. Humble and so damn likeable, Anima Anonima not only made this incredible album Mechanic Organic but they are three of the most genuinely sincere people I have ever met.
This ambient electronic trio is made up of singer songwriter Heidi Sabertooth, Dj fungus, and jazz influenced percussionist Tim Bulkley. All members’ play a multitude of instruments to create their unique sound including drums, electronic beats, turntables, guitar, trumpet, keys, bass, and melodica. If that wasn’t enough, the band would like to learn and use as many instruments as possible; constantly evolving their improvisational creations. The band’s studio – also home to two of anima members – is also house to their musical conceptions. Members admit, they feel inspired and are constantly thinking of new ideas and sounds for the group. However, the band, whose name appropriately means “anonymous spirit”, truly creates their sound in the studio by simply feeling each other’s energy – which really what makes this band so special.
fungus + Heidi Sabertooth
Living in Brooklyn has made huge contributions to that. “We have lived in Williamsburg for about 10 years now. It’s a place of faded industry, chain-link fences, now covered with vines – new art and music bubbling over the concrete. The Domino Sugar factory and the bridge – these mechanical sounds overlap and, at times, it can transform into a forest or an ocean. It just seeps into you – this landscape. The band’s latest effort, Mechanic Organic is a reflection of this intersection of old and new, the natural and the man-made, the digital and the analog, the mechanic and the organic,” Heidi explains. Their concept musically revolves around this idea of being truthful and going with their first instinct. Even when the band mastered the album, they resisted the urge to tweak and fix, they left it alone and didn’t attempt to make it something different. Compromising their original intent and this sound they created together was the last thing they wanted to do. Heidi continues by saying that, “It stems from an idea that when thought, art and action are done in the spirit of anonymity. The result is the most true, most pure expression of life. It can be exciting, it can be scary, but usually it is true to our inner animal.”
Surprisingly, the album is neither chaotic nor invasive. It’s pleasant, thought provoking, and hip. The melodies are strong and the multitude of instrumentation is mesmerizing in its amalgamation. It’s no wonder Anima Anonima has been collecting a following of fans eager to see them live. I asked the band if playing live, recreating this improvisational energy based on its creation, was difficult to replicate. The members agreed that it’s different but when the three of them get together it comes out and becomes its own thing. As well as enjoying seeing how others are reacting to this sound they have created in the privacy of their studio. I think in listening to this really remarkable album you’ll agree Anima Anonima has not only created this sweet treat for our ears but a pretty cool concept that you take something that is truly beautiful and simple, leave it alone, don’t try to perfect it, love it for what it is, and share it with everyone.
You can catch Anima Anonima Saturday, July 18, 8pm at ‘Matchless’ (557 Manhattan Ave. Greenpoint Bklyn – www.barmatchless.com)
