Brand new 6-track EP by U.K. singer ANOHNI. Paradise’s sleeve features nine poets, artists and activists recently featured in a live performance of Anohni’s 2016 full-length Hopelessness at The Armory in New York. This new EP acts as an addendum to Hopelessness in both style and substance, as Anohni returns with the same brand of post-Bjork stadium IDM (production duties are shared by Warp artists Oneohtrix Point Never and Hudson Mokawke) and revisits many of the same issues. Anohni recently offered a free download of an unreleased bonus track to the record in exchange for “a gesture of anonymous vulnerability”, to anyone willing to intimately connect with her via a personalized email. It’s this sort of intimacy that Anohni purveys on Paradise, addressing themes of gender, abuse, personal identity (“My mother’s love, Her gentle touch, My father’s hand, Rest on my throat” she sings) in addition to broader issues such as ecocide and the inherent connection between all women on planet Earth.

• digital download included
• music label: Secretly Canadian 2017

reviewed by dj winyl destination 04/2017