The Bowery Presents

The Mercury Lounge upcoming shows

Phantogram
myspace
Phantogram’s music sounds like it’s made by a band from the city. Electronic loops, hip-hop beats, shoegaze, soul, pop — each finds its way into their songs. Unexpectedly, the band doesn’t live and work in a major urban center, but rather calls the town of Saratoga Springs, NY (population 26,186) home. Despite the cultural influence of local Skidmore College (where fellow beat-experimenters Ratatat formed) and a relatively small scene of adventurous musicians and listeners, Saratoga isn’t exactly teeming with fans of J. Dilla, My Bloody Valentine or Serge Gainsbourg. But Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel, the duo that make up Phantogram and who grew up in the even smaller nearby municipality of Greenwich, have flourished in Saratoga. In fact, the town itself isn’t rural enough for their taste — they drive almost every day another 45 minutes into upstate farmland to a barn they call Harmony Lodge to write and record. Serving as their homemade studio/practice space/think-tank/bat-cave, the barn is equipped with various samplers, tapes, records, synths, drums, and both percussive and stringed instruments. It’s there that Phantogram allows their natural surroundings and metropolitan influences to meld together creating beautiful, beat-driven dreamlike pop songs.
Junk Culture
official website
myspace
Junk Culture is a new project by Deepak Mantena, who was recently signed to Illegal Art. The first Junk Culture EP, “West Coast,” was released October 27, 2009, with another EP following in the spring of 2010.

On “West Coast,” Deepak's samples are all run through a handheld recorder that gives his constructions a gritty lo-fi loop-based sound, mixing fractured vocals, pop hooks, and an overall euphoric warmth. Described by press as "sound tapestries" somewhere between "ambient, dance mash-up, and glitchy electronica" (Todd Olmstead), “West Coast” is a manifesto of energetic raw sound that transcends rigid genres.

Emulating more of a live band than an electronic act, the visceral Junk Culture live show also involves Deepak's brother, Nitin, on drums. The performance includes the Mantena siblings jamming to a tight string of sequences that involve sampled patterns, live percussion, synced visuals of films from the 50's/60's, and Deepak's singing. Live, the “West Coast” tracks have him singing on top of sampled voices, while material already being developed for the subsequent EP involves a more traditional vocal approach, further bridging the gap between sample-based production and songwriting.
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