Giver Taker

Wailing down the hallowed halls of memory and experience, Chithambo feels the resonation of these moments and channels the hurt through extraordinary delicate songs where harmonies wrap around each other with a spectral quality, and the dripping rain of picked guitar strings decorate the walls taking leaves from the book of Sufjan Stevens.

A debut album can often feel like an announcement or an artist statement: something that says, This is me, and this is my music. Anjimile unites that self-consciousness with an exploratory intention.

In all, a very promising debut. [Nov 2020, p.90]

This set of songs, intimate and filled with lyrical and musical nuances that encourage repeated listening, is supremely rewarding. That resilient streak is sure to take Anjimile places.

Tracks like Maker or Ndimakukonda boast compelling African instrumentation and cadences, putting significant stylistic space between Anjimile and Stevens. Throughout, the production – also by relative unknowns – is pin-sharp and generous.

Whereas their earlier material veered towards melodic art-rock, the music on Giver Taker sounds radically gentle and confident.

Anjimile has come a long way since the last album, but you sense a journey still in progress, an evolution still finding its own best shape.