Anyma surprises during the 1st EDM concert in Las Vegas’ Sphere | Music

Arms outstretched, the female humanoid with pulsating blue veins leans back and falls down a luminous, leaf-strewn chasm on the massive video screen in front of us.

She leads by example: For the thousands gathered here, tonight is about taking a similar leap down an audio-visual rabbit hole of light and sound and a bunch of computer-generated eyeballs that blink to the beat.

“Explore your future,” commands a female voice in song over rhythms that register like a sledgehammer to the sternum, and that’s exactly what it feels like we’re doing here at Sphere on Friday during the opening performance of “The End of Genesys”. ,” the new eight-show residency by Italian-American DJ-producer Anyma, the first six of which sold out in 24 hours between pre- and on-sale, moves 100,000 tickets.

The first electronic music concert at the Sphere felt like a long time coming – even though the venue has only been open for a little over a year – because its mountain-sized video screens and state-of-the-art sound system are perfectly designed to shoot the ground-breaking visuals and sounds inherent to the genre , even further into the high-tech stratosphere.

And Anyma, who describes himself as “a hybrid persona that simultaneously exists side by side in digital and physical worlds,” is just the guy to take full advantage of Sphere’s audio-video innovations.

As the title of his residency suggests, Anyma heavily mined his 2023 full-length debut, “Genesys,” on Friday, its songs light and dark at once, with big, lively synth lines and propulsive, arms-in-the-air rhythms as opposed to mildly dystopian themes that examine the divide between man and machine.

The album’s visual presentation revolves around the aforementioned humanoid Eve, a synthetic entity in search of human connection, her quest to transcend her artificial origins, depicted in a series of stunning clips presented throughout the night that have to be seen to be believed – and even then can you find yourself rubbing your pupils just to make sure you’re not trapped in a futuristic fever dream.

Wait, did we just see Ellie Goulding’s face crack into a series of puzzle-piece-like shards that reveal orbital coils after being massaged by multiple sets of different-colored hands? Yes. It happened during the debut of Anyma’s new track with the British singer.

Another pop star who made a King Kong-sized appearance in Anyma’s video presentation was his partner Grimes, who squirmed in a light-colored bodysuit during their song “The Last Artists.”

Aside from the truly far-out visuals, there were also plenty of in-the-flesh flourishes, with Anyma performing in a towering, lit DJ booth flanked by robots on similarly tall ladders playing the cello at one point.

“How does it feel to be real?” Singer Sevdaliza marveled during Anyma’s “Samsara”.

Good question.

Ask one of those cello-playing robots.

Contact Jason Bracelin at [email protected] or 702-383-0476. Follow @jasonbracelin76 on Instagram.