Anvil Chorus
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Anvil Chorus

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Music

The best kept secret in music

Press


"Anvil Chorus - Critics Choice"

When Anvil Chorus singer and keyboardist Anna Cole brought her band's debut EP to the Pitch, she expressed concern that it would not be well received. She even went so far as to apply masking tape to a stick of beef jerky (still wrapped, of course -- it would just be gross otherwise) and scrawl on it the word payola. Well, the music on this disc is slightly more potent -- and delicious -- than an Oberto kippered beefstick. As a matter of fact, it's the closest thing to heroin any local release has achieved since I've been accepting payola -- er ... reviewing music -- for this newspaper. This EP is dark, dire and drop-dead sexy, an immediately ensnaring chemistry of obsessive, paranoiac instrumental layers and maddeningly sensual rhythms and vocals. When Cole sings on the opener, "Excess in the Bottoms," in a husky, out-of-breath rasp, Sweaty, shaking is how you make me feel/So won't you lay down, abandon all of your ideals/For just tonight/For just tonight, you have no choice but to do as she says, knowing full well you're probably not gonna make it home by sunrise. The remaining tracks are a descent into a maelstrom that is by turns soothing and harrowing, sexy and scary. The goal is not to tell stories or play melodies but to build moods through texture, touch and repetition. Bassist Byron Huhmann and drummer Brad Wicklander form a possessed steel-grinder of a rhythm section, with Andrew Kirk's dissonant guitar providing the sparks....... you can compare this band to Joy Division, Björk, the Cure, Portishead, whomever, and none will make you feel quite the same way. Experience the hammer blows live at Anvil Chorus' CD-release party with Darling at Sea on Friday, August 19, at the Brick. - Pitch Weekly


"Critics Choice"

This band makes music that mixes and juxtoposes disparate qualities and moods: serenity and distress, menace and beauty, color and darkness. The opener, "Excess in the Bottoms", chugs and thumps and pulses like some collaboration between Garbage and Nine Inch Nails- leavened by soothing and organic piano progressions. That one, though, is something of a curve because what follows is completely different: "Burgandy" is as skeletal and ethereal as a Mazzy Star tune, until the end when the song erupts into a maelstrom of vocals, drums and guitar effects. Then on "Broken Hands" vocalist/pianist Anna Cole sings in a lovely Bjorkian voice over a bubbling cauldron of percussion and hypnotic guitar textures. This five-track EP then peaks with the enrapturing "Lust and Vice". which vaguely reminds this Radiohead fan of a few select moment on "Hail to the Thief" (like "A Punchout at a Wedding" and "Myxomatosis"). A stellar debut from a band to be watched closely. - - Kansas City Star


"Anvil Chorus - Critics Choice"

Forget her voice; onstage, Anvil Chorus vocalist Anna Cole is a force. Sitting at a keyboard, she manages to writhe, shake and pound out the music — all while looking totally hot. But about that voice...the crescendos and emotive quality of her band's music require that she whisper, moan, yowl and belt without abandon. The Kansas City quartet originally came together at a band scramble and is in the process of painstakingly recording its debut full-length; no doubt the dark and brooding release will be a pants-dropper, especially since Byron Huhmann and Brad Wicklander's take on the bass and drums — which is by turns urgently percussive and sparse and atmospheric — sets the mood for Cole's sultry voice and chilling piano. (Check out music at myspace.com/anvilchorus.) - River Front Times Saint Louis


"Trying To Take Over The World"

Anvil Chorus is aural sex. The tender piano plinks and introduces songs that gently lays you down, the bass line sets a groove as the drummer works you into an ever increasing rhythm, the ebb and flow waves of delay guitar washes over you and rises into a fever pitch, producing a sonic climax. Front woman Anna Cole’s whispered vocal delivery feels intimate and taboo as she writhes in her chair at the keyboard in musical ecstasy. As the song fades, you know that you’ve just experienced something with her. These are the things dark, sweaty, smoky nights are made of....

** See full article at www.presentmagazine.com - Present Magazine


Discography

1.)Anvil Chorus E.P. 2006(sold out)
2.)"Anchor" LP Recorded with David Gaume @ Cypher Sound. Release date July 7, 2007

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

Voted 'Best New Act' of 2006 by the 200K+ readers of Pitch Weekly, Anvil Chorus continues to create new and exciting sounds with their enhanced line up. In their short existence, Anvil Chorus has already shared the stage with the likes of West Indian Girl, Shiny Toy Guns, Season To Risk, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Ilya, White Whale, Tapes n' Tapes and The Melismatics but to name only a few. With a live show that is as intense as it is beautiful, Anvil Chorus continues to win avid fans with each enrapturing performance. They are currently working on their first full length album ("Anchor") due out June 2007 as well as playing live regionally.