It took me a while to realize why the music of Phantom Tails sounded familiar. It was probably the third or fourth listen to Sounds of the Hunchback Whale when I realized that this music would not have been out of place in the goth clubs of ’90s San Francisco… but more like the ’90s goth scene if I’d had my way with it. This is not music you swoopy dance to while artfully waving your lacy cuffs. It requires a little more funk in your back-end. The band’s synth wizard Sergio Hernandez has called it Deep Space Doom Funk.
While it’s definitely dance music, it’s not without grit, coming down with an industrial thump at times. Songs are written, sampled, layered, sampled again, layered some more, resulting in fuzzed out laser zaps, rounded out with jagged guitar, heavy bass and drum machine beats that go down to bedrock instead of floating off into the atmosphere.
Streetsweepers by Phantom Tails
You can dance to it and still look like a badass.
Plus, singer/guitarist Orion Treon quoted the Wu-Tang Clan in an interview, and we are all the way down with that.
You can listen to and download the two songs above, then get over to Bandcamp and pick up the whole album. It’s good from top to bottom.
Love your words April! These guys are interesting for sure! Very rocky dance music in my regular terms!
Aw, thank you, Magic! Glad you stopped by. I’m looking forward to seeing what these guys do next.