Double Phantom digs into the New Electronic South
New DPD comp keeps a tight focus on ATL-based electro music
Earlier this week Double Phantom Records released a digital compilation with a tight focus on new material from 12 Atlanta-based acts the label has been pushing over the last year.
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New Electronic South is a heady, pulsating and pleasant enough wallpaper sampler; a nice soundtrack for a late night of blissful inward journeys brought on by too much coffee and/or too much cold medicine. Actually, it sounds pretty good with a clear head, too.
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Newer numbers from old standbys — Living Rooms, Feast of Violet, Featureless Ghost and Qurious — are punctuated by some lesser known projects amid this corner of the Internet (Kinsi, label owner David Mansfield’s solo project Stranded, and Featureless Ghost’s splinter project Twins). The fey and breathy swoon floating along in Kolossi’s “Gather” is unmistakably that of Mansfield as well. Kolossi is actually 3/4 of Roman Photos (Mansfield, Drew Haddon and Allen Taylor) reconvened, and incase you missed it they dropped an EP called The Chase back in October. Download The Chase.
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The whole thing was mostly curated by Haddon of Warning Light. Featureless Ghost’s “Data Garbage” is the boldest piece here, and while it just barely remains within the sonic parameters that naturally define this collection, it’s also the most interesting piece of music here. Travis Thatcher’s “Night Falls” and Feast of Violet’s “Sudden” are also MVPs. Despite their shared reliance on vocal effects, they’ve respectively trapped synthetic and organic textures in a nearly perfect balance. Kinsi’s “Weekdaze” is right up there among this comp’s finest offerings as well.
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Exact Index’s “gIRL” breaks form, and in this context it’s more than a little jarring. Chambers’ “Death, Life, the Divine” is an interesting return for David Spence and John Hannah of Facehugger, and they might just be onto something interesting, but it needs more time to incubate. As it is, this first glimpse at what they’ve been up to feels a little undercooked. Other than that it’s a pretty smooth run.
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Download New Electronic South, or mash your mouse on the button below.
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New Electronic South by Double Phantom Digital
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Follow the jump for the complete tracklist.