During the pando, Anika Ostendorf – the mastermind behind Hachiku – found herself contemplating whether she’d be more successful “swimming from Australia back to Germany or digging a tunnel through the earth”.
Then she poured her homesickness and desire to reconnect with family into Keep On Swimming. The Naarm/Melbourne-via-Germany-via-Detroit singer-songwriter/producer’s childlike vocal delivery conveys wide-eyed curiosity on this one.
There’s also a delightfully rambunctious surprise-breakdown – as random as an excitable puppy, all floppy ears and giant paws, suddenly ransacking your picnic – toward song’s close.
Check out our gig guide, our festival guide, our live music venue guide and our nightclub guide. Follow us on Instagram here.
Aquatic themes abound throughout The Joys Of Being Pure At Heart (see: opener Don’t Put Your Head Under Water, during which Ostendorf whisper-sings as if teasing a delicious secret). Bubbly sounds – like a school of puckered-up fish mouths breaking the ocean’s surface – open Time Wasted Worrying, which invokes self-compassion.
Ostendorf’s “choir of reassuring angels” (Jessie Warren and Georgia Smith) contribute dreamy harmonies on the harp-enhanced Wild Eyed And Free, until a wacky loop drops us smack-bang in the middle of a kindergarten rave.
Do You Like What You See In Me’s vibratory bass and drum machine backing explode in technicolour come the chorus, like catching your reflection in an admirer’s eyes and kinda liking what you see.
With its playful rim clicks, the bouncy Fun For Everyone demands uninhibited movement: “I don’t know where this is gonna go?” – who cares! Time to embrace the unknown.
This record’s sonic palette shimmers like sun glitter, with harp (Mary Lattimore), violin and cello (The Newmarket Collective) adding considerable texture. It’s whimsical in the best possible way (think: Feist).
LABEL: MARATHON ARTISTS
RELEASE: OUT NOW
