News

There’s been widespread praise for Anna Meredith’s debut album, 'Varmints', now out on Moshi Moshi Records/PIAS. The genre-defying tracks from the album have been getting airplay across the BBC network on Radio 1, 3, 4 and 6, and in the US the album was premiered on NPR, attracting extensive interest.  Anna and her band will be touring the album with live shows in the UK (including a sold-out launch party at the ICA, London), Holland and Slovakia, and they’ll be appearing at Latitude and The End of the Road festivals this summer.

 

 

 

REVIEWS

 

‘Varmints positively bristles… Meredith should do this more often.’
The Sunday Times (Dan Cairns), 5 March 2016

 

'There's no such thing as boring in the wonderful world of Anna Meredith…  galloping, joyful inventiveness…  Varmints really flies when Meredith unleashes the full might of her compositional powers.  The duelling brass of Nautilus sounds like massinfg Martian armies, while R-Type occupies  previsouly uncharted territory between prog, metal and happy hardcore.  Visceral, cerebral, utterly lovable.'
Q Magazine (Victoria Segal), May 2016

 

 ‘… reveals her to be one of the most innovative minds in modern British music: she wears her obvious theoretical grounding lightly and never lets it obstruct her ecstatic quest for new ideas and deranged stimuli.  Varmints is a knockout, the kind that makes you see cartoon stars.’

Pitchfork (Laura Snapes) “Best New Music”, March 7 2016

 

‘Jaw-dropping debut avoids genre limitations by reinventing them… Meredith consistently does a phenomenal job of blending her concert hall ambition with a more mainstream musical sensibility… on

every second of her breathtakingly immersive, textured debut LP, Varmints.’

The Line of Best Fit (Grant Rinder), 29 February 2016

 

“Vibrant and kaleidoscopic in a way few musicians could ever muster, [Varmints] provides a jolt of energy and inspiration to both the pop and classical inflections of Anna Meredith’s personality, bridging the two worlds like never before and marking her out as a talent like no other.'
DIY, 4 March 2016

 

‘Meredith’s unfettered creative reach grants the album freedom from categorisation, trends or fashion.  The limitless possibility she has afforded herself is grasped and explored with effervescent courage.’

‘I got to hear my best mate’s baby son laugh for the first time a few weeks back, and still, the best thing I’ve heard all is this Anna Meredith record right here… it is stunning wherever it lands, Varmints is clever enough to be right at home at your Barbicans, your ICAs or your Café Otos, but its subversive pop element succeeds so strongly it could turn even the stuffiest of them into a proper knees up.'

London in Stereo (Thomas Hannan), 1 March 2016

 

'… a classically trained beatsmith who uses her highbrow skillset to experimental, electronic ends, with frequently thrilling results. Varmints is predictably adventurous – gargantuan brassy parps and huge synth lines building into giant, dizzying dance marvels.’
Diva, 1 March 2016

 

‘… hearing a leading young classical composer, regardless of gender, leap ahead of the pack to make electronic pop that’s both accessible and out there is something very special…  a poised and playful opus of 11 tracks dominated by the sound of maxed-out 1980s 8-bit videogame soundtracks zapped 300 years into the future.’
The Wire (Katrina Dixon), 1 March 2016

 

‘Varmints is one fine and massively creative slab of fresh electronic music that doesn’t sound old or derivative one bit.’
Soundlab (Jim Harris),  March 2016

 

‘Dancefloor fillers and catchy electro-pop gems have their place too, the sort that build to big, thick crescendos and leave you open-mouthed, ecstatic and wishing that both the charts and the Proms were dominated by Meredith’s music.’
The National (Alan Morrison), 10 March 2016

 

'So physical, so big and bold and loud and fun that you could reach out and touch it.'
Electronic Sound, March 2016