Anamanaguchi
New York City, New York, United States
Music
Press
"With notable performances at The Knitting Factory and Blip Festival, Anamanaguchi exemplifies the bitpop genre; their songs are crashing soundscapes of 8-bit chip tunes accompanied by screaming guitar riffs and classic rock drum & bass foundations. This band takes the humble NES and creates layered, complex anthems that vibrate with energy and controlled chaos." - Everything2.com
"NYC's Anamanaguchi is an insanely fun band that rocks out using two guitars, one bass, one drum kit and... hey drummer, give me a roll please... an old manipulated Nintendo. Guitarist/Programmer Peter Berkman hacks into an original Nintendo and manipulates its sound chip to create, along with Ary Warnaar and James DeVito, some of the catchiest and most delightful rock-outs you'll hear.
The music Anamanaguchi creates is not really meant to be a whimsical nod to our video game playing youth. First and foremost, they're about rocking you out, but they're also part of a larger experiment to make a big sound that rises above the limitations of the out-dated and limiting hardware the band uses." - OhMyRockness.com
"There's a young and largely undiscovered sector of music beginning to flourish in the New York City underground—a subculture most often referred to as the "chip scene" by its veterans—that involves using sound code from old hardware (in this case, the NES) to produce original music. Like the developers of yesteryear, today's musicians can create songs that run natively on Nintendo's grey box with both brilliant and nostalgia-inducing results. One of the forerunners of this technique is a band called Anamanaguchi. At first glance they represent the typical college mash-up of drums, guitar and bass, but the unique face of this act is their incorporation of an NES system onstage using actual cartridges." - N-sider.com
Discography
Dawn Metropolis (March 2009)
Power Supply EP (August 2006)
Photos
Bio
If the Chiptune movement ever crosses paths with the mainstream, the four fresh faces behind NYC’s 8-bit punk outfit Anamanaguchi will be its poster boys. But don’t be confused. Indeed these twenty somethings hack the sounds of vintage Nintendo to craft genuinely futuristic tunes via ‘80s video game nostalgia, but they also play drums, wield guitars and unleash an explosion of energy onstage during every performance. Since forming the group in the spring of 2003, the line-up of founding member Peter Berkman (guitar/NES), James DeVito (bass), Luke Silas (drums) and Ary Warnaar (guitar/GameBoy) leans more on the songcraft of Nick Lowe and/or Elvis Costello than on the Legend of Zelda when spilling their guts.
The group knows the appeal of crafting simple and charismatic hooks, but their instrumental jams are affecting on a vague, though deeply human level. The sputtering beats and animated melodies of Dawn Metropolis spell out instant nostalgia for anyone who lived through the Mario Bros. generation, and are, perhaps even more powerful for those who weren’t quite old enough to play the first time around.
“Blackout City” sets the stage with a barrage of tonal clusters, and the fantastical punk stomp of “Danger Mountain” illustrate just how much fun these guys are having. And in light of kitsch and the initial shock of absorbing an album that’s built around a core, sonic vocabulary that we all know, and love but don’t often associate with a sincere listening experience, Anamanaguchi writes tunes of the highest skill level. At no point throughout the album is the group’s attention to detail and instrumental prowess harder at work than during “Tempest, Teamwork, Triumph (at Sea).” Likewise the album’s epic closer, “Mermaid” culminates in a sultry and angular dance floor strut.
Over the last seven years Anamanaguchi has amassed a huge Internet following and recently performed at the Blip Festival in Brooklyn and for 7,000 at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle. A member of the 8bitpeoples collective, their debut Power Supply EP was downloaded 50,000 times. Dawn Metropolis drops on March 3rd with vinyl/CD/download, and a website streaming the whole album along with a whole slew of videos.
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