Phantom Phunk - Arboles Ossific
You haven’t heard anything like this in
2016 and likely won’t again until the band decides to release another album.
Phantom Phunk are inhabiting a corner of the musical universe that is all their
own, boasting obvious influences, but never sounding imitative and transmuting
those influences into music and lyrical content that turns longstanding
formulas on their head through the creative use of music and fresh imagery. The
assortment of tropes, clichés, and misguided attempts for radio play that mark
albums from similarly minded peers pale in comparison to the freewheeling
creativity on this release. Phantom Phunk come out of the gates roaring on
Arboles Ossific and never look back as they sweep the listeners through
different sides of a wide-spanning musical imagination that irrepressibly takes
flight.
It is impossible to deny the energy
packed inside “Snowy in Florida”. The song doesn’t overstay its welcome, but in
the relatively brief time it is playing, Phantom Phunk throws everything but
the kitchen sink at listeners with structure, attitude, and a head-down
determination to perform their music in the most idiosyncratic way possible.
Many of the changes come when the band seemingly stops on a dime and moves in a
completely different direction without missing a beat and, while the lyrical
content might be a little brief, the combination of its few words and the media
clips embedded into the arrangement firmly place it in the progressive
category. “The Unheard Spirit Symphony” has much of the same commitment to
challenging the listener, but the band’s musical attack is always geared
towards entertaining the listener whilst still satisfying the artists’ creative
needs. “Gateways” strips the band’s rock attack down to its kinetic and spartan
best with a simple, insistent tempo and sparking guitar lines that never
overreach.
“Hey There” has a similar slant to
“Gateways” but is much more solidly traditional than its earlier counterpart.
The band is clearly grasping for a classic rock vibe here and achieves it
without ever sounding too studied or self-conscious. The muted and gray beauty
of “brother’s Keeper” musically embodies the lyrical mood and, while the words
aren’t that long, they show the same taste and sophistication to put every line
on trial and eliminate any unneeded verbiage. Arboles Ossific’s only
instrumental “Distant Kaleidoscopes” has a soft peddled psychedelic edge and
melodic virtues that are more obvious here than in some of the album’s more
progressively slanted songs. It is paired wonderfully with its follow-up
“Tommy’s Cosmic Avocado”, an extended musical piece that has obvious
progressive inclinations while still making excellent use of dynamics and the
fundamentals of song construction. The album concludes with “Jungle Crunch”, a
wildly improbable musical ride that even goes so far as to find room for rap
music under its tent.
Phantom Phunk’s Arboles Ossific goes
places you wouldn’t expect and does so with a ease that surely belies the
considerable work that went into making this project a reality. This talented
four piece band presents its audience with a large variety of moods and never
fails to bring them both intellectual stimulation and a true sense of
entertainment that is, ultimately, the hallmark of any great release.
9 out of 10 stars.
Charles Hatton
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