Anamanaguchi, the avant-garde electronic dance music, indie-rock, chiptune band, knew how to communicate with the audience at its sold-out Los Angeles show Friday night. Instead of appearing on stage at the outset, the group let a video speak for it; a screen at the rear of the stage at The Fonda Theater in Hollywood featured scrolling text that was something of a play on internet culture, written in abbreviations, and almost imparting the low-key anxiety that can set in when waiting for someone to finish typing out a text.
The current tour – it moves on to Seattle and Vancouver before hitting Europe later in March – is partly to showcase the band’s late 2019 album, [USA], from Polyvinyl. And the foursome – Peter Berkman, Ary Warnaar, James DeVito and Luke Silas – brought out a few friends and collaborators to help them celebrate.
The packed concert was a full-on audio-visual immersive experience, with sometimes-blinding visuals and heart-thumping music that can leave listeners wondering, “how did they do that?” The group is known as a pioneer of a specific kind of sound, that while digital and originating from hacked video game software can still succeed in conveying warmth and rhythm.
Anamanaguchi blared through the entire new album, kicking things off with minimalistic “USA” and “Lorem Ipsum”- a wildly creative mashup involving computerized voices singing choral music. These contrasted with the more introspective “Sunset by Plane” and “Speak to You,” both of which felt vaguely influenced by the melancholy scores of Japanese animation films.
The visuals running perpetually in the background conveyed the vaguely anarchic underpinnings of Anamanaguchi’s music; sometimes, the lyrics would play out in stark black and white. Or sometimes they would be combined with random words or bits of poetry. Or there might be images of people walking down a crowded street, pressed together, or a row of yellow school buses slowly moving. Here, an image of a smoke alarm, there, as the venue was suddenly plunged in darkness, a striking visual of a sunset.
Friday’s repertoire included “On My Own” featuring Hana, the Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and producer who is an emerging artist in the synth-pop movement, and whose measured and melodic voice was an ideal counterpoint to Anamanaguchi’s peppy instrumentals. Other featured artists included electronic musician Cowgirl Clue and Saint Pepsi.
Saint Pepsi
HANA
Cowgirl Clue
All Photos By Stephen Hoffmeister
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