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ANOHNI \u2013 \u20184 DEGREES\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Last\u00a0February\u00a0the artist hitherto\u00a0known as Antony Hegarty announced HOPELESSNESS<\/em><\/a>, described as \u2018an electronic record with some sharp teeth\u2019, with co-production from Hudson Mohawke and Oneohtrix Point Never<\/a>, and to be released under the name ANOHNI this spring. In a fan interview published in October<\/a>, ANOHNI further characterised the album as a significant departure from the chamber music of Antony and the Johnsons, depicting instead \u2018a dance\/experimental record with quite a dark thematic undertow\u2019. And in an early December interview with Noisey<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 politically minded, espousing the\u00a0need for urgent\u00a0conversation on growing disparities of wealth \u2013\u00a0she expounded on the new name for this project, noting:<\/p>\n \u2018I really decided to start using it a couple years ago and it\u2019s just been a slow process of sharing it with more people, and now I\u2019m kind of pretty much full-time ANOHNI, so that\u2019s good. I just wanted to honor that part of myself. I\u2019ve always been very clear about being transgender, and talking about it in my work, but I wanted to just take a spirit name, so I did it.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n The turn of the month saw ANOHNI\u00a0preview\u00a0the first track from HOPELESSNESS<\/em>, a protest song entitled \u20184 DEGREES\u2019 that she introduced to her live repertoire earlier in the year. The title refers directly to\u00a0a study published in the journal Science<\/em>\u00a0at the end of April<\/a>, which argued \u2018If manmade greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current record-breaking rate, leading to a temperature rise of more than 4C by the end of the century, 16% of species, or one in six, face extinction\u2019. And\u00a0the song was released to coincide with the start of the Paris Climate Change Conference, which after a couple of weeks concluded with world leaders agreeing steps to halt the rise in global temperatures to less than 2C above pre-industrial levels<\/a>.\u00a0ANOHNI wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2018In solidarity with the climate conference in Paris,<\/em> It\u2019s a whole new world.<\/em><\/p>\n Let\u2019s be brave and tell the truth as much as we can.<\/em><\/p>\n Anohni x\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n \u20184 DEGREES\u2019 agitates towards a recognition of our state, in which we instinctively and explicitly\u00a0lament the idea of environmental destruction, while acting without change: as though we believe that claims of widespread flooding and mass extinction are little more than scaremongering, or at least issues that we in our own lives will never have to face. ANOHNI takes our behaviour to its logical conclusion, enunciating a desire to see \u2018dogs crying for water\u2019 and \u2018fish go belly-up in the sea\u2019. The music is tense and swelling, with clipped strings and muted brass against the steady pounding of drums, Antony\u2019s voice reaching a falsetto as he stresses \u2018It\u2019s only 4 degrees\u2019.<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Fi0q0O4V5Qs<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n Peaches \u2013 \u2018Rub\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n On 2 December Peaches gave us the music video for \u2018Rub\u2019, the title track from\u00a0the album she released in September<\/a>. Directed by Peaches \u2013 alongside the \u2018skeptical queer eco-feminist\u2019 multimedia artist A.L. Steiner<\/a>, and the comic performance artist Lex Vaughn, who is also one of the many stars \u2013\u00a0she\u2019s calling it<\/a>\u00a0\u2018the most insane Peaches video ever\u2019, and it is easy to see why. Lines like \u2018Circle jerk girls who spray \/ We\u2019ve got a male in the middle and we bukkake\u2019 and \u2018Can\u2019t talk right now this chick\u2019s dick is in my mouth\u2019 receive a full and glorious enactment.<\/p>\n
\ngiving myself a good hard look,<\/em>
\nnot my aspirations but my behaviors,<\/em>
\nrevealing my insidious complicity.<\/em><\/p>\n