Anamanaguchi @ Cervantes
Anamanaguchi x Covet x Neo Tokyo Philharmonic
09.29.26
Neo Tokyo Philharmonic
Having never seen Neo Tokyo Philharmonic before, I was surprised to see it was a single individual, and also surprised by the lack of any strings on stage. Though thinking it might’ve been a misnomer, that's where the ‘Neo’ aspect comes in where it’s Nick Mauthes (a local Denver dweller) and a laptop on stage, creating the dreamy soundscapes that lured the audience in for the evening.
Landing somewhere between city pop and vaporwave, Mauthes opened up the doors perfectly for the evening, creating a calm before the mathrocky storm of Covet.
Covet
I was introduced to Covet by an old elementary school friend sometime last year; we randomly reconnected and found out we had similar taste in music, sharing different artists that fit the shoegaze/mathrocky bill. The California-based band of Yvett Young, a rising name and famed talented powerhouse on guitar, with Claire Puckett on bass, and Jessica Burdeaux rounding out on drums, started the night with introductions.
Covet opened the night with ‘good morning’ a beautiful way to begin a set, with soft rhythmic tapping melodies that slowly draw the listener in, building off perfectly from Neo Tokyo Philharmonic’s landscape. Feeling like a slow push to get the snowball rolling down the hill as the beat begins to pick up in the latter half of the song, blending softly into their second song, ‘glimmer’, before finally jumping into the math rock deep end with their third track, ‘atreyu’, which I think is a standalone incredible piece that showcases the talent and coordination of the band as a whole. With long, stemming sparkling riffs that wander in place of vocal melodies, and breaks with synchronous tie-ins from the rhythm section - if there were any doubts about the talent on stage, those were all immediately dismissed within the first minute of this song.
During downtime between songs and tuning, Young opened up a conversation with the audience, asking the crowd to share any fun or good stories from their lives that day. I found this to be a rather communicative way to banter, inciting a dialog allowing that artist and audience barrier to be broken.
The most incredible aspect of Covet, is Young’s ability to make complexity feel surprisingly natural and seamless, watching these rhythmic tapping melodies unfold before you, and having predominantly instrumental songs absolutely carry you through an entire set before you realize an hour has passed. The best part, too, is that as a listener, you don't need to be able to count every time signature or dissect every guitar passage to understand what's happening; it leaves room for music nerds to pick up on key changes and time signature shifts, to appreciate the music more, while still being able to be appreciated by any ear around.
Anamanaguchi
Then there's Anamanaguchi. I’ve had some rather funny attempts at trying to describe the genre of Anamanaguchi to others, my two favorites so far have been chiptune-y2k-MySpace-8 bit-mathrock (which definitely has too many numbers in it to be an apt description) and emo-pop if you played it from the soundboard of an N64 with an added sprinkle of early 2000s internet culture.
Their set included a catalog built for contrast: sweet melodic riffs, synthy electronic textures, and the kind of momentum that makes sitting still feel like a challenge. Opening up the night with ‘Lieday’ feeling like a chiptuned version of a pop punk track with these video gamey elements, making you feel like you should hear the sound effects of an arcade around you. The clinking of coins, the whirring of ticket dispensers, the bleeps and bloops of machines begging for your attention, but instead it’s an interesting experience to be able to experience that genre of soundtrack in a ballroom setting. Being able to take time to distinguish it from the usually surrounding background noise and appreciate it for the art it is.
What makes Anamanaguchi interesting is that videogame-y early internet nostalgia never has to do all the work. Sure, there's a familiar pixelated 8-bitness to their sound, that you feel like is a memory you’re just unable to place where you’ve heard it from before. But underneath that surface is a band with a genuine instinct for melody and propulsion. The electronics might suggest an 8-bit cover of a track you know that comes on autoplay at 1am but the music has emotion and depth that is far from computery.
