New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Phantogram Official Website) This Friday, July 22nd, LA's notorious bass music masters, The Glitch Mob, are hitting Terminal 5 in New York City along with
Phantogram and RJD2. It's sure to be one of the hottest tickets around.
What started out as a partnership between friends, each sharing a similar and unique vision for the future of electronic music, has evolved into a kaleidoscopic sound that can only be described by referencing The Glitch Mob name. Selling out venues from coast to coast, the band quickly became a favorite at venues such as Coachella, Red Rocks, and Lollapalooza with their visceral, innovative performances that paired the best of dance music with the backbeat of hip-hop. With a sound that's more of a constantly mutating concept, members edIT, Boreta, and Ooah delivered their first album release in 2010, Drink The Sea, and evoked a voyage into the unexpected - including sonic waters previously unexplored by the band itself.
Phantogram's music sounds like it's made by a band from the city. Electronic loops, hip-hop beats, shoegaze, soul, pop - each finds its way into their songs. Unexpectedly, the band doesn't live and work in a major urban center, but rather calls the town of Saratoga Springs, NY (population 26,186) home. Despite the cultural influence of local Skidmore College (where fellow beat-experimenters Ratatat formed) and a relatively small scene of adventurous musicians and listeners, Saratoga isn't exactly teeming with fans of J. Dilla, My Bloody Valentine or Serge Gainsbourg. But Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel, the duo that make up Phantogram and who grew up in the even smaller nearby municipality of Greenwich, have flourished in Saratoga. In fact, the town itself isn't rural enough for their taste - they drive almost every day another 45 minutes into upstate farmland to a barn they call Harmony Lodge to write and record. Serving as their homemade studio/practice space/think-tank/bat-cave, the barn is equipped with various samplers, tapes, records, synths, drums, and both percussive and stringed instruments. It's there that Phantogram allows their natural surroundings and metropolitan influences to meld together creating beautiful, beat-driven dreamlike pop songs.
Catapulted to notoriety, fame, and serious hip-hop credibility with 2002's Dead Ringer LP, Philadelphia based DJ and multi-instrumentalist RJD2 has enjoyed a thoroughly prolific career, following that debut album with 2004's critically acclaimed Since We Last Spoke. For The Third hand, RJD2 seemingly abandons all the notions and titles that have been placed upon him over the past 5 years. Underground hip-hop super-producer to some, virtuoso sample-based instrumental wizard to others, RJD2 embodies all of these things on the "The Third Hand" but placates none who seek more of the same. Recorded, performed, arranged and produced entirely by himself in his basement studio, RJD2 commands his trusty MPC 2000XL sampler/sequencer alongside analog synths, electric pianos, and guitars, not to mention his own voice. The result is a cohesive pop album in the most classic sense, a sound more akin to Phoenix than Prefuse 73. In essence, this is RJD2's entrance into the continuum of enigmatic songwriter/producers (see Jon Brion, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder) capable of creating a record full of rich songwriting, complex arrangements and clever production that transcends genre.
Friday, July 22nd
The Bowery Presents
The Glitch Mob
Phantogram
RJD2
Terminal 5
610 West 56th Street
New York, NY 10019-3512
(212) 582-6600
www.theglitchmob.com
www.facebook.com/theglitchmobmusic
