Aniseed - Geranium EP

Usually, PR people tend to either burden you with a pile of material about the artist they are plugging, or they give you more or less nothing. This is particularly true of a relatively new or unknown artist, “they are so excited about”. But what about a combination of both? It could be either a lot of empty words or something to ponder about and try to decipher what is going on.

Most of the time the former is the case, but not in the case of East Anglia artist Aniseed and their EP Geranium. The long and winding press release you get basically skips any biographical data, but certainly steers you in the direction of what the music on the EP is all about and where it comes from. “I grew up in an old watermill. Sleeping, playing, eating, whatever. Everything was backed by that hiss of water and the creaks from the turning water wheel”, Aniseed is quoted.

And that is basically the essence of what is to be heard on Geranium. Forget that almost forgotten and overused term ‘folktronica’, what you get here is an excellent balance between found sound, field recordings, and acoustic instruments. From the gentle cacophony of the introduction to “Crab shells”, its acoustic guitars and very background vocals to found tape sounds and something that sounds like a fading organ and distant speaking voices of the closing “Geranium Detector”, you get four slices of gentle musical/sound ruminations that make you yearn for a bit more.

“Sometimes I come out and record sounds really late at night. The whole world sounds different at night. There are sounds in the early hours that most of us never hear because we’re either too pissed or fast asleep.” Again a quote from the author or the authors, because the PR keeps referring to Aniseed both as her and they, adding a bit of mystery to the whole thing. Maybe it should stay that way. At least for now.