Band of the Month: Anomie Belle

Trip-hop composer and producer keeps her conscience social and her instrumentation organic and eerily seductive.

By Aiden Landman
Published: April 9th, 2009 | 1:55pm

WHO IS IT:Producer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Toby Campbell and a rotating cast of musicians and vocalists.

LOCATION:
Seattle, WA

FILE UNDER:
Haunting trip-hop with a touch of ambient vocal tendencies and rainy day sensibilities.

IN A NUTSHELL:
There is a leap of faith involved in eschewing the organic for the mechanical. Setting aside, even momentarily, something once held dear to join the ranks of the adopters, the controllers, trailblazers of the electro-age. For Toby Campbell, the producer behind Seattle's Anomie Bell, techno-organic wizardry and computerized song structures are less an abandonment of her classical roots and more of a stylistic sea change.

Originally a violist and vocalist focusing her energies on classical music, Campbell released a few records, played some shows, and kept writing. Then in 2006, she packed her bags, and moved from her native Portland, OR to Seattle, WA to focus her energies on a new direction.

Since moving to Seattle, Campbell has been heavily involved with programs that help young girls start rocking. She has worked with or performed for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls in Portland, Girls Rock Seattle, Reel Grrls, the Seattle Girls’ School, and AWSEM. She says her decision to do this was based upon her desire “to help young women pursue music and become critical thinkers.” She continues, “As a female electronic musician, producer and multi-instrumentalist, I find often myself confronting gender stereotypes in the music industry.”

The rainy day lethargy and dark isolation is evident in Campbell's alter ego, Anomie Bell. Her music exists in a realm of desolation and cautious nihilism. “My music deals broadly with power and the ways that we all find ourselves complicit in perpetuating ideologies that are oppressive to particular groups of people.”

The word heavy comes to mind, as does dark, but these adjectives, modifiers, and descriptive phrases miss the point. Anomie Bell doesn't make music that’s easily lumped into a pile, filed, and given to public consumption. Her sound, direction, and singular vision begs questions and demands their answers. Her music, both sonically and thematically, seems the product of hours of studying, reading, and learning. Something Campbell admits saying, “The content of my music is informed by graduate studies in Media and Cultural Studies and Feminist Theory. I write about the objectification of women in popular media, performance and entertainment, and the ways that such oppression becomes normative and accepted.”

Don't get the wrong idea however, Anomie Bell is not necessarily music for those bent toward the macabre. Her music is as fit to be a soundtrack to a hazy late night drive as it is a lonely night spent in quiet solitude.

Depression this is not, a cautious and eerie look at our current state of affairs, maybe. Her mixture of organic instrumentation – guitar, piano, violin and other strings – with inhuman drumbeats and synthesized textures suggests a dualism between guards old and new. She walks a balance, and the results speak volumes.

MORE INFO:
Anomie Belle MySpace

—

Anomie Belle is Venus Zine's "Band of the Month" for April 2009. Visit Venus Zine’s Sonic Bids page to submit your profile for coverage consideration.