Pretty much the last thing anyone expected was a solo album from Anja Huwe, the former singer with proto-goth legends XMal Deutschland – even less so for it to be released simultaneously with a compilation of the band’s early singles. XMal released their final album in 1989 and disbanded the following year, since which time, Anja has been away from music, at least publicly. People who are creative by nature never lose that bent, and she’s spent the intervening ears focusing on photography and visual arts, latterly painting, as well as radio. Her website describes her painting as being ‘like music on canvas’. She’s explicit that this new musical output is a reinvention and one could perhaps flip it to describe it as ‘like canvas in music’.
‘Codes’ is certainly a long distance removed from the stark angularity of Xmal, focusing instead on layering and expansive, emotive instrumentation: ‘Skuggornas’ introduces the album with brooding piano and string sounds, which contrive to create an orchestral feel, and it provides the backdrop to a bold, almost confessional set of lyrics which move between semi-spoken-word delivery and strong, theatrical stylings.
Shimmering electronic textures and rippling guitars all fade into one another, and ‘Codes’ explores deeply the scopes of atmospherics. The tense, pulsating ‘Pariah’ is exemplary. ‘I changed myself… into myself…’ she announces before plunging into a dissonant realm in which techno, electro, industrial, and splinters of post-punk mesh together, while ‘Exit’ brings allusions of Trent Reznor’s more skulking, electronically-orientated work.
|
‘O Wald’ is the most overtly accessible electropop tune on the album, but ‘Zwischenwelt’ brings a booming gothy bass to a hazy, shoegazy sonic expanse of a tune, and ‘Sleep With One Eye Open’ is an intense, muscle-tensing, blast of dark electronica.
You couldn’t exactly say she’s mellowed, and it’s not all a complete departure, either: Rabenschwarz’ introduces her interest in techno and brings it with industrial-strength beats and collides them hard against driving bass and harsh metal-edged guitar and steely vocals, coming on like Xmal for the 21st century.
‘Codes’ picks up pace and grows in dark intensity as it nears its conclusion. ‘Living in a Forest’ is a dark rush, but it finally slows and settles with the slower-paced piano-led ‘Hideway’, which comes as a welcome opportunity to finally breathe and the end of a strong album.
|
