#enderness

Alabama born Auguste Arthur Bondy started his musical career as a guitarist and vocalist with indie grunge band Verbena. Formed out of high school and initially featuring Daniel Johnston on bass, the mildly successful group would go on to release three full-length albums before calling it quits in 2003. Relocating to New York's Catskill Mountains, A.A. Bondy began focusing on a solo career and released his debut American Hearts in 2007. Taking a more folk, country and blues inspired approach, his lyrics had become more personal and downbeat. Two more well crafted albums followed with When The Devil's Loose in 2009 and Believers in 2011, but then he suddenly vanished from the music world. A few years of heavy drinking and some time spent at an MDMA surf club in Los Angeles, Bondy made his return to songwriting in 2016. It was during this time that the songs for Enderness came together, his first release in eight years and the fourth of his career. However, in unfortunate circumstances a wildfire would burn down his house the day after the album was completed. A departure from his previous work, Enderness finds Bondy dealing in a hypnotically minimalist style of electronica, with his lyrics darker and more intriguing than ever. It's about as solo as solo albums get with Bondy not only playing every instrument on the record, but he also recorded, produced, mixed and has even been touring it himself. One of the stops on the UK part of his tour was Chester, invited to play in the city by Roman Candle Productions. Performing Enderness in full with a few extra tunes thrown in at the end, the venue for this incredibly intimate show couldn't have been more perfect. A grade I listed deconsecrated church, St. Mary's Creative Space has hosted some incredible events in the past couple of years. Although, it's unlikely that anyone quite as unique as A.A. Bondy will pass through again any time soon.

Photo: Daniel Kirby

Photo: Daniel Kirby

Photo: Daniel Kirby

Support typically comes from someone local, especially at smaller shows like this one, but Bondy made a special request that this not be a musician of any kind. Instead, warming up the audience was local magician Nick Rea performing sleight of hand style tricks with some participation from members of the audience. An additional request from Bondy was that all lights around the venue be turned off, with only the red rope light on his keyboard and the projector screen behind him providing illumination. Beginning with Enderness opener 'Diamond Skull' on which he touches upon our addiction with celebrities, the electric guitar heard on the album was played entirely on keyboard live but it was just as mesmerising, if not more so. Working through his new album, the performance of every track was simply superb. His vocals sounding better than they ever have on the likes of the organ-led 'Killers 3' and the fragile bass-led single 'Images of Love', there's something utterly compelling about his beautifully bleak ruminations on the darker side of modern existence. Broken up by three ambient instrumentals, including the Prince montage accompanying 'Pan Tran', the spectral electronic piano of 'Fentanyl Freddy' with its focus on America's opioid crisis left the room utterly floored. Closing his set with a couple of re-worked older tunes, he returned for an encore of Nat King Cole's 'Smile'. Which, after such a devastating performance, makes us love A.A. Bondy even more. Enderness is available now via Fat Possum Records

Enderness is the comeback record from A.A. Bondy, an artist I had never heard of and yet who was apparently previously known for being folky and Americana-inspired. Enderness, however, as a slowcore Sophisti-pop work, is neither folk nor Americana. An excellent example of the creation of a singular atmosphere, it’s a record that emphasises its own simplicity with (mostly) impressive production and decent songwriting. This atmosphere is crafted largely through the production but also through Bondy’s mostly vocal delivery, which is both very melodic and almost entirely one-dimensional. His odd sense of humour carries the record but, overall, I feel both intrigued and indifferent to the record as a whole. I haven’t heard anything like it in a while, and yet it doesn’t scream “excellent” in any department. Enderness is enjoyable as a piece of work that is artistically consequential for its artist, but it’s ultimately too inconsequential as a whole to warrant as much attention as it demands.

A.A. Bondy Entertains a Rapt Rough Trade NYC with Brand-New Music

A.A. Bondy – Rough Trade NYC – May 10, 2019

By his own admission, it had been a few years since A.A. Bondy had last played New York City and even longer since he’d put out an album. But for the sold-out crowd at Rough Trade NYC on Friday night, this was clearly not an out-of-sight, out-of-mind situation. Personally, there have been countless examples of hearing a new artist and catching a vocal or a lyric or little melody that’s made me think of Bondy and to wonder what he’s been up to. Apparently quite a bit, but most important, just out with a brand-new album, Enderness, released earlier in the day, Bondy was live, in the flesh in Brooklyn delighting the full house. In fact, the show was little more than just Bondy in the flesh. He took the blackened stage dressed in a dark sweatshirt and sunglasses, surrounded by almost nothing—there wasn’t even an opening act, just a synthesizer and a laptop and a projector throwing a series of clips on the screen behind him.

Early on Bondy pointed to the synthesizer and joked, “Do you like my new guitar? It’s a vintage Martin D3.” Yes, he’s ditched the folkie acoustic guitar for a synthesizer, which provided digital precipitation and some melodic oomph throughout the set, but it really did feel like a guitar, a subtle complement to his songwriting. It was those songs, though, his voice and point of view, that were still vintage Bondy, a lovely melancholy, lyrics like “Murder is more entertaining than peace ever will be,” painfully real but poetic all the same. Most of the set came from the new album and while maybe one or two in the crowd persisted in calling out for old material, the audience was mostly rapt, even for songs they could’ve only known for 12 hours.

A.A. Bondy - Enderness

A.A. Bondy is an artist who managed to create a very enigmatic aura around his persona. The mercurial performer has reinvented himself several times throughout his career, going from angsty post-grunge antics, to folk musings and mellow indie rock aesthetics.

Today, he’s rediscovered a different side to is creativity, exploring the possibilities of synthesizers, drum machines and lo-fi sonics.

The calm, slow-placed introspection typical of Bondy’s output is still very much there, but this album achieves new heights in terms of storytelling.

On the poignant “Fentanyl Freddy,” Bondy digs deeper into some of the darkest corners of humanity, telling stories of personal decay, desperation and abuse.

Birmingham, AL -- A.A. Bondy is back with his new album Enderness, which is set to release on May 10 via Fat Possum Records. This will be his first LP in 8 years and to newest single from the album is “Fentanyl Freddy”. With only four verses, “Fentanyl Freddy” is the kind of song with sparse vocals but strong instrumentals. It’s a little hard to pinpoint exactly what the instrumentation is but it has a very distinct blend of indie folk and synth pop. I love the piano-driven core of this track and the soft delays on the chords give the song a dreamy yet haunting sound. A.A. Bondy’s soft vocals have a tinge of wistful nostalgia and melancholy. “Fentanyl Freddy” is kind of song that definitely puts in a very specific mood and the artistry of the track is truly incomparable. 

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