PHÈDRE play the Great Hall February 24. See listing. Rating: NNNN
There’s already a ton of advance buzz about Phèdre, the new collaboration between Doldrums and members of Hooded Fang, and this self-titled debut doesn’t disappoint. While NOW loves both acts, Hooded Fang’s bouncy surf pop is a bit too normal to blow up big, and Doldrums lo-fi sampling experiments are a bit too weird. Phèdre, however, combines the best of both projects, with impressive results.
Their album sounds like Ariel Pink and Lil Wayne getting together to produce a Human League record. The songs are undeniably pretty electronic pop, but also disorientating, woozy and vaguely unsettling: picture an artsy loft party where far too many are on LSD and removing clothing at an alarming rate. We still have no idea how they managed to make a song constructed around dog bark samples (Aphrodite) work so well, but the fact that they even attempted it (let alone pulled it off) tells you how fearless they are.
Top track: In Decay
