there's no way to deny it. i'm a member of generation x. and my generation's musical peak took place during the 90's. the overwhelmingly influential aspects of electronic music from the 90's still affects me today. when i think of making music, in my mind its usually electronically based. the bands i listen to the most are electronic bands. and the albums i have listened to the most have been primarily electronic albums. nine inch nails, aphex twin, cardigans, tears for fears, sneaker pimps, roni size reprazent, goldie, all made important electronic albums during that time.
its been a long time since i heard something new to my ears, something worth investigating further. in my view, because of the emergence of insane music technology, and virtual instruments, easy sampling, infinite sounds in sound modules, an electronic artist needs to push the form to get my attention. the last time this happened in a big way was when i discovered tycho, maybe 4 or 5 years ago. recently, i've been a fan of lusine, who is on the same record label.
this week i've discovered phantogram, (ironically from the tycho-iso50 blog) an electronic / street beat / pop duo from pastoral upstate new york. when i learned they weren't from brooklyn, i actually liked them more.
i've heard their album and it is the closest thing sonically, texturally, to what i usually have floating around in my head. phantogram is also the latest example of my obvious life-long preference for female vocalists in an electronic setting. nina persson on gran turismo, kelli dayton on the first sneaker pimps album, and the chopped up female vocal samples on lusine's recent releases are all good examples of this.
there are tones/textures/samples on this album that really stand out as musical and unique. i'm gonna try to get them here to bottletree eventually, mainly by begging. phantogram is also associated with the same label as tycho and lusine, the amazing ghostly international. ghostly is easily my favorite record label. phantogram's primary label is barsuk, home of rilo kiley and deathcab.
here's an early feature, published shortly before they changed their name.
here's the excellent pitchfork review, where they are streaming the entire album. Here's an excerpt:
"They couldn't have picked a better title. Eyelid Movies, the debut LP from the self-proclaimed "street beat" duo Phantogram, is a lush and evocative thumper indebted to the sultry side of Moby's Play. Riding a steady trip-hop inspired groove, the hushed and mostly mellow Eyelid Movies seems a fine companion piece to a long stroll or something more sedentary and meditative; point being, it sounds great in the background."
here's some interview and performance clips. mouthful of diamonds and make a fist are two of their standout tracks. like a few reviews have mentioned, this is likely the evolution of trip-hop, and that is actually a fairly diverse genre. the interview feature is from abc's amplified and the two performance clips are from kexp and the current. the last clip is from side-b. for an electronic duo with no physical band, they bring the noise.