Phantoms vs Fire - WLDFE
Phantom VS Fire hails from Brazil, and it out with its second album which has been released on cassette and CD via German-based label Blackjack Illuminist Records. Purely electronic-act which makes a lovely fusion between chilled retro-wave and dreamish ambient electro-pop. Think Boards of Canada, Electric Youth, and touches of Daft Punk here and there.
It´s a bloody well-executed piece of work I say. Kind of thing that retro-wave fans might enjoy since the album/act tries something new with the nostalgic synth-formula. An excellent example of this would be to give the second track Mirage a listen (or two for that matter). The first thing you´ll notice would be the strange nostalgic (and slightly sound-altered) beat starting the track, a kind of beat which takes me back to the late 80s to early 90s. Rap-groups and other pop acts have used this similar beat. This beat gets joined up with a lovely warped heavy synth-bass and a futuristic and dreamish melody straight from heaven. The mood gets slightly more dark and dramatic later on with angelic church-like organs! One of those lovely kinds of tracks which just kind of... grows on you. I have heard this track... maybe 20 times so far?. Third track A Beautiful Madness lives up to its title. Reminds me of something apocalyptic from one of those old Japanese RPG-typed games which you played on your NES or the Sega Masterdrive. (Phantasy Star, Final Fantasy etc).
A kind of storytelling quality if you please. Retro-wave with gothic/dark-wave elements are explored on the fifth track Electric Cross, has that almost early Italian zombie-flick drama attached to it! The best elements we have heard from French Daft Punk are further exposed to us on the sixth track Cave Dreams, sounds like a lovely dream that shouldn't end.
And that is that rest of the tracks/album are also worth the exploring. As mentioned earlier, the album shines of storytelling like quality which makes the album hold from the start to the very end. If you put on Tangerine Dream´s Stratosfear, then you know that u should listen to that entire album to the end of it. Same way works with this! A lovely underground indietronica release which deserves attention.
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