Anika EP

Continuing where her acclaimed 2010 self-titled debut album left off, the EP *Anika* includes more collaborations between the Berlin-to-Bristol singer and Portishead\'s Geoff Barrow and Beak. The members of Beak have served as Anika\'s backing group for the past several years. Together they make a deliberately android-ish art-dance-pop-rock that recalls Nico\'s work in the mid-\'80s with The Faction, but it\'s far more stripped down and accessible. The covers are well-chosen and picked for their various emotions, which Anika delivers in the same dispassionate monotone. A version of The Kinks\' \"I Go to Sleep\" (perhaps best known in its cover by The Pretenders) is sparse and flat. The Crystals\' \"He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)\" has its horrible truth punched to the front for one more ironic go-round. Shocking Blue\'s \"Love Buzz\" is turned into a hypnotic prayer. Two dub mixes by Bristol producer Ratman trick out the previous singles \"No One\'s There\" and Yoko Ono\'s \"Yang Yang.\"