Anohni HHV Records 2 Items

Anohni Has Shared An Emotive Cover Of Gloria Gaynor's 1978 Classic 'I Will Survive'. The Track Was A Staple Of Her Early Live Shows And Opens With A Graceful String Arrangement By Maxim Moston, Paired With Piano Performed By Anohni. Prior To The Track Being Widely Available On Streaming Platforms, Anohni Shared A Video Incorporating Live Footage Alongside Messages Dedicated To Groups And Causes That Anohni Has Long Been An Activist And Advocate For. During The Clip, Anohni Dedicates The Song To "The Sacred Gay People"; "All Endangered Black Trans Lives"; "Those In The Us Who Die From Medical Neglect"; "The Coral Reefs Of The World, Now Rotting"; "All Those Awaiting Execution In Us Death Chambers"; "Black Lives Tortured And Stolen By American Cops" And More. The Messages Reflect Anohni's Longer Values And Work As An Artist, Trans Activist, Environmentalist And Advocate For Social Justice. Alongside The Release Is A Statement From Anohni, On The Track Being The Subject Of A Licensing Offer She Turned Down Due To The Platform In Question Hosting Misleading Pro-Trump Ads. Further On The Track, Anohni Explains: "It Was The First Song I Ever Sang In Nightclubs In Nyc When I Was 20 Years Old. I Sang It Hundreds Of Times. In Those Days I Sang It Thinking Of Marsha P. Johnson And The Underground Queer Community Struggling To Survive In The Face Of Aids. Now It Seems To Me Like An Anthem For The Future Of Life On Earth." 'I Will Survive' Follows A Brace Of Releases From Anohni This Year: Most Recently 'R.N.C 2020', A Track Inspired By The Republican National Convention Which Took Place In August And The Dread Anohni Felt While Watching It. Prior To That, Anohni Released A 7" Consisting Of Two Covers, One Of Bob Dylan's 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue' With A B-Side Of Nina Simone's 'Be My Husband'.

A viscous embrace, a pulsating pouring out, Anohni's voice is above all else a vessel for political armament. On 2016's Hopelessness, her voice bombarded with explicit illustration of Obama-era atrocities -- of war crimes, of apocalyptic climate change, of patriarchal violence. Now sharing a dual cover set - Bob Dylan's `It's All Over Now, Baby Blue' and Nina Simone's `Be My Husband' - she casts a subtler, but no less powerful incantation towards change. The original tracks dating to 1965, a year marked by the Selma marches, the Watts Rebellion, and the landmark Voting Rights Act, illuminate the eerily parallel struggles of this year. Anohni's rendition of `It's All Over Now_' reads as a hopeful, future goodbye to times dominated by oppression. With `Be My Husband," textually woven with marital submission and want for acceptance, she examines our reliance on the very systems that fail us. In borrowing these songs, Anohni adopts their history along with her contemporary interpretations, respecting the lineage of the people's movement while calling for its continuance today. "When Biden said `Americans don't want revolution, they want a return to decency,' he was wrong," she explained. "We all know deep down that the continuation of our civilizations for much longer will require seismic change." On `It's All Over Now, Baby Blue', Anohni explained: "I recorded It's All Over Now, Baby Blue with Kevin Barker one afternoon a few years ago. I listened to it recently and it reminded me of Now, a nausea of nostalgia for the suffering of the present, or even the future. I did a couple of songs by Bob Dylan at that time, encouraged by Hal Willner, the producer who we lost to Covid 19 in April. I hope that this period, and this repugnant presidency, will be over soon, and that these bigots and apocalyptic capitalists and evangelicals will crawl back into their rotten little holes. But how can this happen unless the American media and social media are forced to tell the truth? I am glad to see the mobilization of Black Lives Matter and the re-emergence of the Occupy movement. When Biden said "Americans don't want revolution, they want a return to decency," he was wrong. We all know deep down that the continuation of our civilizations for much longer will require seismic change." On `Be My Husband', Anohni said: "I saw Nina Simone perform at Carnegie Hall in 1991 while I was still in college. The concert was not properly publicized, and the theater was only half full. I think it may have been her first time back in NYC in many years. She was rumored to be volatile and unpredictable. That night she sang and played with such dignity, so incredibly, and she did 5 or 6 encores. For me, she was the greatest musician of the 20th Century. She didn't write many songs, but the ones she wrote were among the most profound of the era. Be My Husband was one such song. The lyrics spin a paradox of romantic assertion and submission. This live version of the song was recorded at an Antony and the Johnsons concert at the Knitting Factory in NYC in 1999."