EXPLODED VIEW

Obey SACRED BONES 8/10 Former Anika frontwoman ventures through darkest wilds of post-punk

Now based in Berlin, the German-British singer Annika Henderson began exploring the shadowiest corners of post-punk, mutant dub and experimental electronics as Anika, her collaboration with Geoff Barrow’s Beak>. On the second album by her transcontinental project with Mexico City’s Hugo Quezada and Martin Thulin, she achieves something close to the eerie synthesis of avant-classical art song and Throbbing Gristle-worthy brutalism that three-quarters of TG themselves created on their 2012 tribute to Nico’s Desertshore. That makes for some gripping moments regardless of whether Obey’s contents are as icily austere as “sleepers” or as abrasive as “Rant”, a cacophonous retro-industrial closer that’s grimy enough to pass for early Cabaret Voltaire.