Anthone – Breath/Lungs
Weevil Neighbourhood is such a nice name for a label. It paints the imagination with a picture of a busy eco-system hard at work; various breeds of beetles filing in and out of their self-built burrows, others dangling off plants, while bigger ones push dung up sandy molehills. Something else that adds character to the Weevil Neighbourhood, beside its bespoke vinyl packaging and often ominous sounds, is it personalises each catalogue number rather than bar-coding it. It may only be a nuance (of the many they have), but it’s a sweet touch. So for instance, instead of Anthone’s previous releases looking something like WNH004 and WNH005, it was DOTS and GRIDS. So for this Breath / Lungs 12”, naturally it’s AIR with the words ‘inhale’ and ‘exhale’ etched on to each side’s run out groove.
Anthone is the Weevil Neighbourhood’s marquee artist. The exact identity of who Anthone is, however, a mystery. They, it, he, she, them, have only delivered quality for the label so far, beginning with the three-track Aloof from 2012 that features a sinisterly abstract piece of rave called “Rebound”. Somehow it’s cheerily atmospheric while being heavy as a truck at the same time. The label’s next release was Anthone’s more serious Double Dub / Clear View 10”, with both tracks sounding like the internal movements of giant weevil bug that’s been built out of scrap metal and controlled by an evil little cretin from a Jean Pierre Jeunet film.
On this release however, various styles of production are at play, and beginning with the A-side’s “Breath”, you can count everything from dub techno, dubstep and drum and bass (so it’s pretty bass-heavy) to dark ambient, noise – and at a stretch, instrumental rock. The kicks are industrial with some of the hits sounding like they’ve come from a live drummer, but dexterous beat-mapping means the drums are fresh and loopy with out being too complex. There’s that fat sine-wave bass-sweep too don’t forget.
“Breath” only really takes off, though, when those bit-crushed and shuddering chords enter, adding a new dimension to a drum loop which was starting to feel tired. These glacial movements add a renewed life to the track however, and in a few short passages it metamorphoses from sounding like a super-charged version of LV and Untold’s “Beacon”, to a hybrid of UK bass, techno and industrial music that Trent Reznor could only dream of producing.
Same goes for the B-side, “Lungs”. And although there are techno-isms relatable to producers like Lucy, Milton Bradley and Ancient Methods, it’s the elements foreign to electronic music that takeover. Again it’s the rockiness, and its opening passages sound like the first few bars of a post-hardcore song by a band like Thrice or Alexis On Fire (thankfully with no screamo vocals), but it’s made to fit a dubby-reggae riddim, like a far heavier version of the instrumentals Aus Music’s Sideshow used to make.
The production on Breath / Lungs is excellent, but this record isn’t the label’s most memorable release, nor is it Anthone’s – but both deserve recognition for the superb work they’ve done in the past, and will continue to do in the future. And if this happens to be your starting point in discovering the label, you’ll just have to burrow deeper into the Weevil Neighbourhood.
James Manning
Tracklisting:
A1. Breath
B1. Lungs