Starting today, if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you can place an order for Or Anthony‘s Layer Cake EP. The independently-released, digital-only outing runs three tracks and all of eight minutes, so it’s not about asking too much of your time, and the experimental foundation on which the material is based might just be enough to make you want to wear the t-shirt that comes with the download. The solo-project would seem to prefer to remain nameless beyond being known as Or Anthony, and that’s fine, but if you want to know what’s up beyond the artsy weirdness and cake-digging you get in the video below for “Skin” — somewhere between sexualized gore and those recipe videos where you only see the down-view of someone’s hands — the outfit’s Soundcloud page is a trove of free thought and free listening. Open mind, dive in. If you prefer a bit more presentation, it’s also all laid out in semi-explanatory fashion on his website.

Or Anthony sent the picture here of the modified Philips headphone he used as a mic to record the vocals and guitar on “Skin,” and I feel like that does a good amount of explaining the kind of mentality he’s working with — purposefully taking something that is receive-only and making it send. The flipping-upside-down of expectation, of structure, and I guess of sound itself depending on the manipulation happening at a given moment. The EP begins with the minute-plus “Wabi,” recognizing spiritual solitude in a fading drone and whispers before the time-keeping strums, pops or whatever they are of “Skin” take hold. Compared to “Wabi” before or “Grounded” after, “Skin” is arguably the most straightforward, since its rhythmic march is accessible enough to nod along, and even as it transitions from one stage to another at will, it doesn’t completely let go of that backing beat for more than a couple seconds until its duly ethereal finish.

“Grounded” follows the pattern of blending lo-fi electronics with guitar and maybe-voice, but is less tethered on the whole — and these are relative considerations, to be sure — and pushes further out before ultimately letting go with what feels like a willful lack of ceremony. There and gone. Hey man, it’s been a long pandemic for everybody. Millions of years.

I’ll leave you to it without further delay. Ordering info is under the video.

Please enjoy:

Or Anthony, “Skin” official video premiere

Hi, I’m Or Anthony

‘Skin’ [is] part of a 3 song collage called Layer Cake. This is an online release on Soundcloud and YouTube. It comes with a T-shirt and Button-pack, both with a download link included. Orders can be placed via www.or-anthony.com/#layercake on June 11 onwards.

Or Anthony on Facebook

Or Anthony on Soundcloud

Or Anthony website

Tags: Layer Cake, Or Anthony, Or Anthony Layer Cake, The Netherlands, Unsigned bands

This entry was posted on Friday, June 11th, 2021 at 6:23 am and is filed under Bootleg Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.