By Georgia Smith
Anuseye (I sincerely hope the name is not pronounced the way it’s spelled – Monk) return with the first part of a two-chapter journey into the relationship between place, time, and perspective with their latest album ‘Right Place Wrong Time’. With each track of this grungy, psych-rock taking the name of a city, and the meandering changes of vocals, style, and sound, ‘Right Place Wrong Time’ becomes an overall expression of exploration, newness, and the influence of changing perspectives.
The thrumming, portentous opening of ‘Odessa’ promises the deep, heavy undertones that fans have come to expect, and ensures the album’s opening is as equally powerful as the concepts that have driven its creation. Anuseye’s archetypal psychedelic elements run alongside the density of bass and guitars to create a masterful blend of psychedelia and heaviness.
There is a definable ominousness to the opening track, with its half-spoken monosyllabic vocals almost buried beneath the fuzz and distortion of the music – they are almost intangible, creating a sense of richness and depth. From the start, the album promises to be a deeper perspective than what is initially gathered from a surface-level interaction.
‘Bratislava’ has this same slow intangibility and resulting ominousness, with its echoing spoken overlay and intentional obscuring of the words. Inarguably psychedelic in nature, yet elevated through the tight, heavy rock elements, the album shapes itself as a multifaceted creation, attacking the source concepts from different angles simultaneously. The more sinister psychedelia of ‘Bratislava’ is a change from the earlier tracks ‘Sagres’ and ‘Churchofchrist’ with their lighter, faster guitars and more forefronted vocals, and indeed this becomes a pattern throughout all of ‘Right Place Wrong Time’; a constant back and forth between tonality and approach- at times light, easy psychedelia backed by catchy riffs, and at others quite dark, portentous, utilising the most powerful elements of each musical style.
‘Sagres’ and ‘Churchofchrist’ both therefore mean the eerie tone of later tracks is highlighted through their inclusion, with the lyrics still spoken, but on these tracks with a more conversational, excitable feel. Higher guitars and less bass distortion twist around meandering bridges and heavily distorted, warbling phases that are nothing short of archetypal psychedelia.
With the band setting out for the album to represent trips, perspective, and different mindsets of their members, Anuseye have achieved what is at once a twisting, formless exploration into these abstract concepts, and yet simultaneously structured enough for the aim to become clear. Returning to structured guitars and rhythmic vocals after long psychedelic phases or the almost-sinister building-up allows the album to wander and explore, whilst still remaining faithful to the things that give it its core. An experiment into the perspectives and psychic states of its members is an effective way to have done this, and the track ordering reflects it.
‘Medellin’ is the longest track on the album at over seven minutes, and follows on from the earlier tracks with its laid back, relaxed style, steady and stately structure, and drops into the rapid psychedelia of shredding guitars. Raspy, notably now more confident vocals and the distorted experimentalism of formlessness to structure and back again give this track- potentially more so than any other track on the album- a sense of journey, almost a tale. It’s easy to imagine this song at the end of something- a party, a live set- with its faded grunge producing an atmosphere impossible to ignore.
At this point, it’s easy to consider this album as one long, continual song (or journey, as the concept aimed for), and it becomes less necessary to note the start and end of each specific track. ‘Right Place Wrong Time’ could be experienced as a single extended track- the concepts would still work, and the musicality is varied and successful enough to remain interesting. Having started from these concepts of time and exploration, and then having the tracks run on in this way is ingenious.
‘Vancouver’ and ‘Santiago’ have the more confident, upbeat sound that strengthens as the album continues. The later tracks on the album seem to swap from lighter to heavier- always grungy psych-rock, but appearing to originate from different places- with each style sounding increasingly self-assured as the album progresses. Catchier and fuller, with well-layered sound and easier vocals to pick out from the mix, ‘Vancouver’ is a rising, warbling display of technical guitar with almost erupting guitar phrases; sounding guttural, almost inherent.
The music here becomes a force to be reckoned with, and Anuseye have ensured that they are the ones to channel it. ‘Santiago’ has almost a ‘chirpy grunge’ kind of style, at once heavy and yet with an uplifting undercurrent of these light, warbling guitars and confident foregrounded vocals. ‘Singapore’ makes use of this heavy distortion and warbled guitar solos but on a heavier, thicker basis, resulting in a really dirty, grungy kind of sound and the same return from structure to a psychedelic meandering and exploration.
The range of Anuseye is never more apparent than on successive tracks ‘Stockholm’ and ‘Addis Abeba’, where the slower, untethered style of ‘Stockholm’ falls into the heavy, drum and bass-focused density of ‘Addis Abeba’. Unusually foregrounded vocals become background spoken-word, light deftness becomes a powerful sense of dread.
The shortness and power of ‘Addis Abeba’ sets it apart from earlier tracks such as ‘Churchofchrist’ and ‘Kyoto’, with Anuseye forgoing vocals entirely and allowing the raw power of the musical evocations to work alone. Hollow echoes and higher guitars sit eerily alongside the half-buried speech, and contrast dramatically with the earlier rousing, excitable sound of ‘Stockholm’. Again, it becomes apparent of the multitude of directions and perspectives this album exists from, and the offers with which Anuseye have made it possible to experience it.
The final parting track ‘Berlin’ exists almost as a summation of these by now well-established concepts and sounds. The final track melts into the longer experience of ‘Right Place Wrong Time’ as seamlessly as the other tracks existed alongside and within each other, simultaneously structured and free. ‘Berlin’ is bright, upbeat, and yet emulates a pensiveness that brings together the core ideas of Anuseye’s latest album – heaviness and playfulness, exploration, the different results of different perspectives- in a way that they become almost impossible to separate.
Anuseye’s dense new creation blends everything- rock and psychedelia, opposing emotive tones, the idea of exploration and yet simplicity and structure- and this extends not only across the concepts, but into the core of the sound itself. An incredibly rich and often intimidatingly large landscape, ‘Right Place Wrong Time’ exists primarily as an experimentation, and yet manages to do so with such force and range that listeners will find the dreamlike experiences of it applicable to almost anything.
- ‘Right Time Wrong Place‘ is released on Friday 20 October.
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