from: Mount Pleasant, MI
website: www.anathallo.com
myspace: www.myspace.com/anathallo
I waited to write about Anathallo because they have been opening up for The Format on their current tour and I thought I might see them, but although I managed to catch The Format last Sunday here in Nashville, I missed all three openers. So no first-hand live evaluation here, but I'll do my best to share what I do know.
Anathallo is a collection of seven (eight?) young multi-instrumentalists, a collection that had its start five years ago - when a group of friends began touring in a green Dodge Caravan as seventeen and eighteen-year-olds. 2006 is a momentous year for them, after a number of lineup changes and several shorter self-releases, the band has finally released Floating World, their first official foray into the full-length world. According to the official bio, the album is "the product of the ensemble’s interest in pairing textural choral and chamber melodies with dark orchestral horn arrangements, pinning the 3/4 meter of a Russian piano waltz against the sparse and organic textural qualities of Velcro and socket wrenches." Although their MySpace categorizes the band as "folk/experimental," their sound is just as eclectic, puzzling and interesting as the description above.
So what can you really expect from the band? The rock 'n' roll standards of guitar bass and drums, supplemented by a variety of additional instruments and sounds - trombone, melodica, piano, glockenspiel, flugelhorn, and even the aforementioned velcro. Similarities can certainly be drawn between the niche of new Americana currently inhabited by Sufjan Stevens and The Decemberists, as well as the more experimental turf of bands like Animal Collective and The Books. Anathallo is certainly, certainly different, and I would like to suggest that you take your ears and explore this new sonic territory yourself.
"Hanasakajijii (Four: A Great Wind, More Ash" (from Floating World)
"Genessaret (Going Out Over 30,000 Fathoms of Water)" (from Floating World)
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