Hovering

I've sat down to write this review many times, but it never quite settles into a proper description of the music on this, Anika's third full-length album.

You'd be excused if you're unfamiliar with her material. Anika's been a resolute figure on the periphery of the local scene for years now, uncompromising in her approach and fixed in her convictions that what she's doing is right and to hell with the detractors.

Hers is not the kind of music a major label ever touches in this country, but this hasn't stopped her from making music either. If you look at international artists like Ani de Franco or Kristin Hersh, there's enough proof that one can make it by yourself or on the fringes of indiedom, so there's no reason for Anika to quit believing. Her cult of fans has also been growing constantly, and 'Hovering' should add considerably to them.

This is her most accomplished album yet. There's a new cohesiveness about the songs which previous albums have lacked — this is an album in the proper sense of the word, from the prodding 'Hunger', straight into the understated pop quirkiness of 'Not Today' all the way through to closer 'Clown For Love' with its urgent opening line of "I'll just drive & drive & drive my day away", it's an album that grows and breathes, taking you by the hand at times and kicking you into the stream elsewhere.

The Rob Nel-produced 'Sky Cracked Open' is one of Anika's finest songs yet, and here on record it bubbles out in a delicate Gypsy-like flurry (it's the accordion that makes it), driven forward in simple, jerky movements which peak when that voice slices into the top part of her considerable register.

'Half Sounds' — a definite live favourite of mine — is presented in straight-forward fashion, as the simple, slow-blossoming structure demands, Anika's guitar strong here, the voice slowly winding the meandering curves of the song.

The gentle sax of Lebo Mogale (on both soprano and alto) is an instrumental highlight of 'Hovering', especially strong on 'A Mile', where Anika's lyrics are at their ambiguous and evasive best, tracing the outlines of a relationship, or is it a craving?

There are no easy answers on any of her records. Like Kristin Hersh, the lyrical split is multi-faceted, at once immediate and personal and somehow just the magic memory of your heroine, spilt out into songs for communal rummaging. Sharing makes the burden less.

Anika does the bulk of the production on the album too and while she had access to some outstanding musicians to flesh out the sound, it's very obvious that there's one person at work here.

She's one of our most underrated songwriters, unique in every way (comparisons to Tori Amos by now utterly devoid of meaning) and on the evidence of 'Hovering', very far from being done with us.

This is only the beginning. And that's good.

Go see her live if you can, her recent show at Oppikoppi was a festival highlight. More on her website.