Annie Anxiety

Soul Possession

Debut from 1984 by the cult-legend, poetess sorceress, now on vinyl.

Known now as Little Annie, smoky-larynxed torch singer, Annie Bandez was first Annie Anxiety when she left New York for Crass’s an archocollective in Essex. Even so, she was no punk, politically or musically: one-off 1981 single Barbed Wire Halo mirrored the no wave jams and poetry of her NYC crew Annie & The Asexuals – Bush Tetras meets Lydia Lunch – while Soul Possession’s anxious dubtronica added the sound of London’s punk-funk underground, given depth-charge dynamics by producer Adrian Sherwood. Annie’s searing lyrics explored Thatcher’s Britain and Cold War tensions on the likes of the quasi-Yoko gibber of Viet Not Mine, El Salvador Yours. Despite Third Gear’s sample of Perry Como’s Magic Moments, Soul Possession can sometimes be uneasy listening (also note the Lydia-isms of To Know Evil), but it’s a thrilling travelogue from an inspired fish out of water.