Anamanaguchi is a chiptune band from New York City. For most of you who don't know, Chiptune is a genre of music that involves the blips and boops of old video game consoles, basically video game music from the 80's and 90's. What makes Anamanaguchi unique is that they combine chiptune with real instruments, like guitars and drums. Another thing that makes them different is how they get their blips and boops, which is by using a hacked Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Game Boy. Founded in 2004, Anamanaguchi released their first album in 2006 with "Power Supply". This album, while only having seven songs, incorporates everything this band is about. It's fast paced and poppy, while also having some slower songs. It also seemed to be telling a story, with hints coming from the titles of the songs. From what I can gather, it's about breaking into a highly guarded facility full of danger and wonder, trying to reach the center, the power supply. While I don't love every song on this album, it does have some of my favorites, like "Flora/Fauna" (below)
Three years later, Anamanaguchi released their next album, "Dawn Metropolis". Like "Power Supply" before it, "Dawn Metropolis" has only seven songs and seems to be telling a story, if a little more vague this time around. It also doesn't lose their signature energy and quality. I think this is an amazing album and has most of my favorite Anamanaguchi songs, one of which is probably their most famous, "Blackout City"
After "Dawn Metropolis", Anamanaguchi started to gain a little more recognition, but nothing serious. That is until 2010. That year was the release of the "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World", the highly anticipated adaptation of the graphic novels of the same name. A game company named "Ubisoft" decided to make a video game to coincide with the film's release. They decided to make it a 8-bit homage to late 80's mid-90's video games, which is what "Scott Pilgrim" was all about. For the music, Ubisoft decided to hire the band perfect for 80's to mid-90's video game homages, Anamanaguchi. This is when I discovered them. If you know me, you know that I absolutely adore "Scott Pilgrim". I love the comics, movie, music, and especially the game. I loved playing through game, so much so that I played it five times all the way through. One thing that stood out to me each time was the music. I decided to do more research and discovered Anamanaguchi. I immediately bought the game's soundtrack of 25 songs and listened to it non-stop. Months later I discovered that the song "Jetpack Blues, Sunset Hues" is used as the opening theme to Chris Hardwick's Nerdist podcast. After wearing that song out, I bought the other two albums and fell in love. I patiently awaited for their next project. On May 3rd 2013, what I was waiting for finally arrived.
On that day, Anamanaguchi began a Kickstarter campaign to release their dream project album, "Endless Fantsay"(pictured above). They'd been working on it for three years and had been turned down whenever they tried to sign with a record label. They decided to make their fans their record label and let them fund it. The money would not only get the album distributed, but would also fund many ideas they had for the album, like music videos, collaborations, and improving their concert experience. They set their goal at $50,000 and posted links on all their social medias. In 11 hours they reached their goal. Now, with 5 days left, Anamanaguchi has raised $228,654, as of the time of this writing. They've been ecstatic with this response and released the album on May 14th, giving "free" copies to anyone who donated to the Kickstarter, which I did. The album has received a hugely positive response and I whole heartedly agree. The album still feels like Anamanaguchi but with more passion and love behind it. Not to say that the others didn't have work behind them, but this one especially. The stand-out of the album, at least out of the many I had to choose from, is "Planet", which was also one of their singles.
After raising all of this money, they had to do something amazing, something astounding. So what was the first thing they did with their over $50,000? This...(awesome stuff at 3:20)
That is why I love this band. They do crazy stuff like this all time and they are the best people to follow on Twitter. I've been listening to "Endless Fantasy" non-stop for 2 weeks straight and can't stop. While I love this album, I can't wait to see what's next! If you want to support this Kickstarter, cause you do get awesome stuff for donating, check it out here:http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dreamhax/anamanaguchi-make-endless-fantasy-more-than-album
UPDATE: After 30 days, the Kickstarter ended on June 2 with a total amount of $277,399. That's over 5 times their goal! They're currently on tour and you can get dates and locations at their website which I'll link here:http://www.anamanaguchi.com/#shows
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