The Anteroom

Last updated
The Anteroom
The Anteroom.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedOctober 19, 2018
Recorded2016–2018
StudioPat House, Los Angeles
Genre
Length57:24
Label Domino
Producer
How to Dress Well chronology
Care
(2016)
The Anteroom
(2018)
What Remains (Remixes)
(2023)
Singles from The Anteroom
  1. "Vacant Boat (shred) | Nonkilling 1 | The Anteroom | False Skull 1"
    Released: June 27, 2018
  2. "Nonkilling 6 | Hunger"
    Released: September 11, 2018
  3. "Body Fat"
    Released: October 15, 2018
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 74/100 [3]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [4]
DIY Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [5]
Dork Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [6]
Drowned in Sound 4/10 [7]
The Line of Best Fit 7.5/10 [8]
MusicOMH Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [9]
Pitchfork 7.3/10 [1]

The Anteroom is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Tom Krell, best known under his project name How to Dress Well, released on October 19, 2018 digitally and physically on Domino. The album was influenced by a spiritually intense period in Krell's life, as well as his renewed interest in experimental electronic music with abrasive and atmospheric textures that he had explored at the beginning of his career.

Contents

Background and composition

Krell initially conceptualized The Anteroom when he relocated to Los Angeles after the United States 2016 election, and intended it as a "testament" to a two-year spiritually exploratory and intense period in his life that followed where he "felt [himself] slipping out of the world and into a cosmic loneliness in which [he] would eventually be dissolved". [10] Prior to the album's release, Krell addressed that he was "no longer making music for the algorithm". [11] With the album, he aimed to return to the experimental-, ambient- and noise-influenced sounds of his early work, but more cohesive and detailed; the press release subsequently described the album as a "single continuous piece of 21st century psychedelic music". [12] Domino described the album as incorporating "blizzardous electronic noise, fragile melodies and poignant poetry", [2] and compared the album to a weighted blanket. [2] Krell also detailed the album's artistic and literary inspirations, citing:

Inspired by Coil (especially the "Moon Musick" phase), Robert Ashley, Kathy Acker, Helena Hauff, Neil Landstrumm, Front 242, Paul B. Preciado, "Acid Mt. Fuji," Dambudzo Marechera, Vatican Shadow, Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures, Alec Empire, Akira Rabelais, Frank Bidart, Basic Channel, Ocean Vuong, Silvia Federici, Maggie Nelson, Alejandra Pizarnik, demonic negative transcendence, the end of life on the earth: How to Dress Well presents The Anteroom. [2]

Krell additionally published a Spotify playlist titled "The Anteroom Influences (LOTOU 1.1)" which documented the album's overall musical influences, as well as songs he listened to before and during the production of the album as reference points for its production style and emotional tone. [13]

Artist and producer Joel Ford, who contributed production and engineering to The Anteroom, was described as a "facilitator" and a medium, and Krell admitted that his production on the album lead to Ford's interest and passion for music being renewed after a prior negative experience; [14] Krell coped with "super mangled emotions" through Ford's presence in the studio. [14] They also developed a technique known as "Incomplete Picture", an analogy for their gradually reductive production process and tendencies to engage in minimalism, creating "openness for the listening act". [14]

Concept and influences

The Anteroom is stylistically radically different from Krell's prior album under How to Dress Well, Care (2016), which was focused strictly on contemporary R&B and synthpop. In comparison, The Anteroom focuses mainly on experimental electronic music, ambient music and post-industrial music with abstracted pop songwriting, which was described as "bewitching sound experimentation". Prior to the album's release, Krell called it his "most sonically, biographically and conceptually detailed and intense record to date". [11] He also admitted that he "got in such an intense space mentally", [15] and that the album ended up becoming "this kind of big, exquisite corpse of itself". [15] The album also lyrically addresses elements of Krell's own personal life, emphasized the most on "Nonkilling 6 | Hunger", "July 13 No Hope No Pain", and "Love Means Taking Action".

The album features literary and poetic references; the title track, "The Anteroom", lyrically references Maggie Nelson's Bluets multiple times, "Nonkilling 6 | Hunger" begins with a sample of a reading of Li-Young Lee's poem "The Cleaving", and "Brutal | False Skull 5" uses vocal samples of readings of poems by Ocean Vuong, Anne Sexton and Frank Bidart. Krell commented that "the way [he] write[s] is very free associative", [14] and that he "had a canon of books [he] was reading; over and over, books of poetry that were essential"; he compared himself to a channel for such works. [14]

Album art

The album cover of The Anteroom, different for the CD and vinyl editions, was created by Krell in collaboration with artist and friend Joshua Clancy. The deluxe vinyl edition in particular features art created in a "VR cave" on the Oculus Rift, which Krell and Clancy described as a "hyper-Lascaux at the end of the world". [11]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Tom Krell unless indicated, and co-produced by Joel Ford and Michael Silver

The Anteroom track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Humans Disguised as Animals | Nonkilling 1" 4:50
2."Body Fat" 5:02
3."False Skull 7" 1:13
4."Nonkilling 3 | The Anteroom | False Skull 1" 6:42
5."Vacant Boat" 3:03
6."Nonkilling 13 | Ceiling for the Sky"
  • Krell
  • Nick Sylvester
5:21
7."A Memory, The Spinning of a Body | Nonkilling 2" 5:04
8."Nonkilling 6 | Hunger" 5:40
9."July 13 No Hope No Pain" 6:35
10."Love Means Taking Action"
  • Krell
  • Ford
  • Loke Rahbek
4:23
11."Brutal | False Skull 5" 3:20
12."False Skull 12" 2:20
13."Nothing" 3:52
Total length:57:24

Sample credits

Related Research Articles

<i>Infinite</i> (Eminem album) 1996 studio album by Eminem

Infinite is the debut studio album by the American rapper Eminem. It was released on November 12, 1996, through Web Entertainment. Recording sessions took place at the Bass Brothers' studio, with production handled by Denaun Porter and Eminem himself. The album features guest vocals from fellow Detroit rappers Proof, Denaun Porter, Eye-Kyu, Moe Men-E, Three and Thyme, as well as singer Angela Workman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Four Tet</span> English electronic musician and DJ (born 1977)

Kieran Hebden, known as Four Tet, is an English electronic musician. He came to prominence as a member of the post-rock band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist with charting and critically acclaimed albums such as Rounds (2003), Everything Ecstatic (2005) and There Is Love in You (2010). In addition to his twelve studio albums as Four Tet, Hebden's work includes a number of improvisational works with jazz drummer Steve Reid and collaborations with Burial and Thom Yorke.

<i>Rounds</i> (album) 2003 studio album by Four Tet

Rounds is the third solo album by British electronic musician Kieran Hebden, released under his alias Four Tet on 5 May 2003 by Domino Recording Company. Wanting to make a more personal record, Hebden recorded and produced the album in his North London flat over ten months using a desktop computer and a home hi-fi system. Its ten tracks feature elements of hip hop, jazz and folk; apart from a guitar part recorded for "Slow Jam", the music is composed from between 200 and 300 samples, many processed beyond recognition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jon Hopkins</span> English electronic musician and producer

Jonathan Julian Hopkins is an English musician and producer who writes and performs electronic music. He began his career playing keyboards for Imogen Heap, and has produced but also contributed to albums by Brian Eno, Coldplay, David Holmes and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Deacon</span> American musician

Daniel Deacon is an American composer and electronic musician based in Baltimore, Maryland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sampling (music)</span> Reuse of sound recording in another recording

In sound and music, sampling is the reuse of a portion of a sound recording in another recording. Samples may comprise elements such as rhythm, melody, speech, or sound effects. A sample can be brief and only incorporate a single musical note, or it can consist of longer portions of music, and may be layered, equalized, sped up or slowed down, repitched, looped, or otherwise manipulated. They are usually integrated using electronic music instruments (samplers) or software such as digital audio workstations.

<i>Merriweather Post Pavilion</i> (album) 2009 studio album by Animal Collective

Merriweather Post Pavilion is the eighth studio album by American experimental pop group Animal Collective, released on January 6, 2009, through Domino Records. The group recorded the album as a trio featuring members Panda Bear, Avey Tare and Geologist, with co-production by Ben H. Allen. It is titled after the Maryland venue of the same name, where Portner and Weitz attended concerts in their youth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">How to Dress Well</span> American multimedia artist

How to Dress Well is the stage name of Tom Krell, an American multimedia artist, singer-songwriter, and producer from Boulder, Colorado. He began releasing music independently through his own blog around 2009 and via labels like Tri Angle, Lefse Records, Weird World, and eventually Domino later on in his career.

<i>Submarine</i> (EP) 2011 EP / soundtrack by Alex Turner

Submarine is the debut solo EP by English musician and Arctic Monkeys lead vocalist Alex Turner, released on 14 March 2011 by Domino Recording Company. It was written by Turner in 2009, on an acoustic guitar, at his New York City home. It was produced in London by frequent collaborator James Ford, alongside guest musician Bill Ryder-Jones, and string arranger Owen Pallett. The EP consists of six original songs that act as the soundtrack of Richard Ayoade's debut feature film, Submarine (2010), based on the novel by Joe Dunthorne. The artwork is a resized version of the film's poster, which depicts lead actor Craig Roberts.

<i>Replica</i> (Oneohtrix Point Never album) 2011 studio album by Oneohtrix Point Never

Replica is the fifth studio album by American electronic musician Daniel Lopatin under the stage name Oneohtrix Point Never, released on November 8, 2011 via Mexican Summer and Software. It features co-production by Joel Ford and Al Carlson, and was Lopatin's first work to be recorded in a studio. Stylistically, the album marks a shift away from Lopatin's previous synth-based works under the alias, instead showcasing a sample-based approach utilizing audio from 1980s and 1990s television advertisements.

<i>Centipede Hz</i> 2012 studio album by Animal Collective

Centipede Hz is the ninth studio album by American experimental pop group Animal Collective, released on September 4, 2012 on Domino Records. The album marks the return of band member Deakin, who sat out of the recording and touring of the band's previous album, Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009). On the US Billboard 200, it peaked at No. 16.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ducktails (musical project)</span> American music project

Ducktails is a solo project led by American songwriter and guitarist Matt Mondanile, started in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vulfpeck</span> American funk band

Vulfpeck is an American funk band founded in 2011 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, by Jack Stratton, Theo Katzman, Woody Goss and Joe Dart. The band has released four extended plays, six studio albums and one live album through their own record label. The band gained recognition in 2014 for releasing Sleepify, a silent album that exposed a loophole in Spotify's royalty distribution and funded an admission-free tour. The band is one of the first to sell out Madison Square Garden without a manager or backing label, and released the recorded performance as a live album in 2019. The band's most recent album, Schvitz, was released in December 2022.

<i>This Is All Yours</i> 2014 studio album by alt-J

This Is All Yours is the second album by English indie rock band alt-J, released on 22 September 2014 through Infectious. It was promoted with four singles: "Hunger of the Pine", "Left Hand Free", "Every Other Freckle", and "Warm Foothills". It topped the UK Albums Chart, was runner up in Belgium, Australia, and Canada and reached #4 in the United States. It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.

<i>"What Is This Heart?"</i> 2014 studio album by How to Dress Well

"What Is This Heart?" is the third studio album by American musician How to Dress Well, released on June 23, 2014, on Weird World, an imprint of Domino. It is his highest-charting album, peaking at number 145 on the Billboard 200.

<i>Care</i> (How to Dress Well album) 2016 studio album by How to Dress Well

Care is the fourth studio album by American musician How to Dress Well, released on September 23, 2016 by the Domino Recording Company.

<i>Just Once</i> (EP) 2011 EP by How to Dress Well

Just Once is an extended play by American singer-songwriter Tom Krell, known by his stage name as How to Dress Well. It was released on July 12, 2011, by the label Yours Truly, and is dedicated to Krell's friend Ryan Douglas Hitchon, who died in August 2010. The extended play consists of three string quartet-driven chamber renditions of songs from How to Dress Well's debut album Love Remains (2010), as well as another track, "Suicide Dream 3". Just Once was written by Krell, and recorded and mixed by Nic Atamaniuk. It garnered generally positive reviews from music journalists upon its July 2011 distribution, some of the major praises and criticisms going towards its departure from the reverb-and-distortion-heavy sound of Love Remains for a cleaner sound.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sorry (band)</span> English indie band

Sorry is an English indie rock band from North London. The band members are Asha Lorenz, Louis O'Bryen, Lincoln Barrett, Campbell Baum and Marco Pini. The band's debut studio album, 925, was released in 2020, following the release of several mixtapes and singles.

Hyperpop is a loosely defined electronic music movement and microgenre that predominantly originated in the United Kingdom during the early 2010s. It is characterised by a maximalist or exaggerated take on popular music, and artists within the microgenre typically integrate pop and avant-garde sensibilities while drawing on elements commonly found in electronic, hip hop, and dance music.

<i>I Am Toward You</i> 2024 studio album by How to Dress Well

I Am Toward You is the sixth studio album by American musician Tom Krell under his stage name How to Dress Well, released on May 10, 2024, via Sargent House. It has received positive reviews from critics.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "How to Dress Well - The Anteroom | Pitchfork Media". pitchfork.com. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "How To Dress Well - The Anteroom – Rough Trade". Rough Trade. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
  3. "Metacritic Review". Metacritic . Retrieved August 12, 2020.
  4. Phares, Heather. "AllMusic Review". AllMusic . Retrieved August 12, 2020.
  5. Goggins, Joe. "DIY Magazine Review". DIY . Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  6. Young, Martyyn (October 16, 2018). "Dork Magazine Review". Dork . Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  7. Wilkinson, Henry (October 26, 2018). "Drowned in Sound Review". Drowned in Sound . Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  8. Biddles, Claire (October 18, 2018). "The new record from How To Dress Well is an urgent, uneasy return". The Line of Best Fit . Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  9. Devlin, Ben (October 15, 2018). "MusicOMH Review". MusicOMH . Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  10. "How To Dress Well Announces The Anteroom, Shares "Nonkilling 6 | Hunger" | Music News | Consequence of Sound". Consequence of Sound. 10 September 2018. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
  11. 1 2 3 "The Inside Story of How To Dress Well's Music, as Told by How To Dress Well". AnotherMan. 24 October 2018. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
  12. "How To Dress Well announces new album The Anteroom". Domino Music. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  13. "The Anteroom Influences (LOTOU 1.1) | Spotify". Spotify. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 "How To Dress Well talks philosophy, metaphysics, duality, and the truth in 'The Anteroom' [Interview]". Earmilk. 5 November 2018. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
  15. 1 2 "How To Dress Well The Anteroom Interview". Red Bull. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
  16. "Class of 2018 – The 100 Greatest Songs of the Year!". Songs For Whoever. 14 December 2018. Retrieved January 30, 2019.