#electro-pop

Dear listener, recently I’ve been semi-regularly online gaming (Grim Dawn on Steam) and exchanging musical notes with Tumblr mindful-hempress. In a recent fun exchange, she sent me a video of a fairy girl licking amphibians and tripping balls in the forest. Fresh off her astute recommendation I asked her if she was ‘ready to dance??’ and introduced her for the first time to the music of Phantogram. Having never heard of them, she responded very positively to the music video for their song Fall in Love from their 2013 album Voices (smash play on the track above). Specifically, she praised the voice of lead singer Sarah Barthel and kept on sampling their tracks, I assume, well into the effervescent night. So, it worked on her. Now I ask you, Tumblr. ARE YOU READY TO DANCE!? If the answer is affirmatively YES, YES, YES!!!… scroll down for some more details, you degenerate sicko. If the answer is no, well, then kindly fuck off?? If the answer is middling, read on...

This is a psychedelic pop duo I’ve highly enjoyed for about a decade, and they managed to hook me fairly quickly with their street-beat, synth-heavy tunes. Their music is equal parts batshit crazy and deeply emotional, and they generally manage to hit both extremes on every single one of their albums. A New York band consisting of two pre-school friends, this group found at least a tepid amount of initial success with extensive interest in singles related to their self-titled 2009 EP. A year later, they released their first full length album, Eyelid Movies, which, while not a slam-dunk music-market success, enabled them to set up their foundational roots and original sound. Starting in the mid-2010’s their music started to pop up on the radio, commercials and even video games. Recently, I was playing Grand Theft Auto V and one of their songs randomly started playing as I was cruising around Los Santos. I consider them to be one, if not my favorite electropop act, as they can produce sounds that are both emotionally gritty and hypnotic, all while keeping me interested in what they’re going to do next. Perhaps the best part of music by Phantogram is that no matter what, I always have a hell of a lot of FUN listening to them. Whether I’m trying to decode some of their lyrics, or listening passively in my car to one of their darker tunes, or just sitting at home listening to one of their full-length albums… I can’t get over how much FUN this duo is to listen to and watch. Just below, you’ll find You Don’t Get Me High Anymore from their 2016 album Three. Smash play and as always, enjoy!

Tracklist:

Aoede • 3 Minutes • Djin • Icarus • Maghawir • Kalaam (s/he) • Tayf (Ghost) • Falyakon • Bint El-Khandaq • Asnam (Idols) • Saad Al-Suud • Ashabi (Comrades) • Marikh