A five-year hiatus has kept us on our toes, but the output we've been given was more than worth the wait. With Teebs' latest, you can not only hear but feel the stillness of how that five years of human connection and reflection has shaped his work.
He's not only a staple of the L.A. music scene, but part of a collective, creative family whose influences echo in his work. Anicca is stacked with an incredible host of collaborators, from Sudan Archives and Panda Bear to Ringgo Ancheta (MNDSGN) and Jimetta Rose, and while they stand ornately against Teebs' wholly unique beats, what becomes apparent immediately are the album's soulful, reflective underpinnings.
It washes in on the light distortion and hazy reverb of "Atoms Song," featuring Thomas Stankiewicz, and continues along with tracks like "Universe" featuring Daydream Masi and "Marcel," with seprewa (Ghanaian harp-lute), chimes and a light ocean breeze operating in a space all their own.
While this release still holds the softness that E s t a r a introduced, Anicca digs its roots in a little deeper and capitalizes on shuffling beats and a deeper, headier use of percussion. Standout "Mirror Memory" exemplifies everything Teebs offers on this album, a straight shot of thought applied directly to canvas — a landscape of strings, ethereal, drifting synth and a tempered beat that adds to, rather than holds together, the track. Anicca is an album that stands alone, reaching above and beyond expectation.
