Phantom Phunk - Arboles Ossific
Some bands can and want to do it all.
Phantom Phunk from the South Florida doesn’t restrict themselves in anyway and
anything that works to improve a song falls within their wheelhouse. The
artistic bravery pushing this sort of confidence to the fore can be heard
across the board in the band’s first release Arboles Ossific. It’s a ten song
collection that leaves few stylistic stones unturned in the band’s search for
the right mix of musical ingredients and their instincts for what works and
what doesn’t couldn’t be better developed. The four piece eschew virtuoso and
star trips, preferring to largely remain anonymous in the hopes that their work
speaks for itself, but it is apparent that, despite their relatively young
ages, they possess a combined talent that would be the envy of much older and
established headliners.
The combined talents are fully evident
from the first song on. “Snowy in Florida” will leave you breathless just
listening to it because the band literally never rests for even a nanosecond.
They come at the audience with a wide variety of emotional tones ranging from
full-on rock attack to knotty progressive influenced passages. They pull back
on that in your face approach on the album’s second track “Sip of Wine” and
show listeners the first example of their ability to create suggestive musical
landscapes with precisely chosen notes and a sense of restraint that may not be
so evident on other songs. They also distinguish themselves lyrically with by
exploring the love song theme with a distinctly different and almost literary
voice. Their engines rev again for the uptempo romp “The Unheard Spirit
Symphony” which, if one wanted to, can be viewed as a natural “sequel” of sorts
to the situation depicted in the song before. It has a strong commercial feel
too which, thankfully, never panders for the listener’s attention.
They turn in a more traditional
direction with the track “Hey There” and the classic rock tropes that they
throw towards their listeners find their mark. “Looping”, indeed, has a gentle
looping sort of effect in its arrangement and its uptempo energy, while not
quite as frantic as the earlier song “The Unheard Spirit Symphony”, easily
carries listeners along to the song’s inevitable conclusion. The album’s sole
instrumental track, “Distant Kaleidoscopes”, proves without any doubt that the
band can succeed in delivering compelling performances sans lyrics and provides
a brilliant segue into the penultimate track. “Tommy’s Cosmic Avocado” might be
bizarrely titled, but the song is anything but. It’s the album’s longest track
but never sacrifices accessibility to make some grand statement.
This is a band with a boundless future.
As mentioned at the beginning, this is a band capable of doing anything and
they cut a vivid swath across this ten song collection pursuing their musical
ambition and scoring in a big way. Phantom Phunk’s Arboles Ossific is the first
salvo of what will surely be a musical run full of fireworks and creativity.
9 out of 10 stars.
Hey, thanks for the great review.
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