ANIM Count To Ten
Some tunes make such a profound and immediate impact on your senses that the moment you first heard them stays with you forever. Often it’s a piece of music the like of which you have never encountered before, a unique vocal or lyric that can inspire everlasting magical memories.
Anim Count To Ten is one such record. The latest crossover dance smash from Ireland is a refreshing pop epic which seizes your attention instantly with its distinctive, almost spiritual, a combination of melodies, lyrics and vocal.
It is no surprise then to learn that the birth of ANIM’s record Count To Ten began with a transcendental experience at the bohemian arts festival, Burning Man. In the middle of the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, Darren Rice set out at 5 am with his camera to capture a sunrise he would never forget. He likened it to a festival on the moon, the setting was spectacular and there was just a handful of others present.
As they sat immersed in the splendour & shade of a giant pink unicorn-shaped vehicle, someone played a beautiful jazzy acoustic track that seemed so poignant, so perfect.
Rice had an overwhelming affinity with its heart and soul, a fellow reveler was even moved to tears by the raw beauty. Luckily for Rice, he was recording all of this on video and when a few days later he found himself still humming the melody, its contagious effect got him thinking about how this tune might work on a heaving dancefloor.
Ricer, as he is known affectionately to friends, family and fans is not just a gifted aspiring photographer. His creative streak drove a hugely successful DJ career that saw him entertain the masses at many of Ireland’s most cutting-edge clubs and forward-thinking festivals. He’s also a notable independent radio host, podcast presenter, sneaker fiend, and style guru. A burning ambition was to take what he felt he’d been gifted in the desert & produce it into a club banger.
Enter Mark McCabe, a rare dance music producer who can craft underground house and techno jams with as much aplomb as he can propel a pop monster such as Gavin James’s Nervous (The Ooh Song) to more than 160 million streams on Spotify alone.
McCabe is another huge independent radio success story in his native Ireland, the latest string to a bow that includes being responsible for one of the top 10 biggest-selling Irish singles of all time with the hit “Maniac 2000”, selling out clubs and headlining massive festivals as a DJ, not to mention a lengthy stint playlisting the national pop radio station RTE 2FM.
The pair’s work on Count To Ten has proved a fruitful team. They clicked so harmoniously on the project that the potential for future releases and live performances seems too obvious and apparent to ignore.
Early indications suggest that the tune has captured the imagination of both radio programmers and dancefloor dons alike. Plans are already afoot for a follow-up.
Anim also hopes to create their own transcendental moment by dropping Count To Ten at 6 am during one of the country’s many famed summer festivals this year. It’s a burning ambition.