Throwback Thursday: Phonat - Set Me Free / Learn To Recycle

Yesterday on my way home from Bump In The Hump I was listening to music on my iPod Touch (which itself is a throwback), but it has been glitching lately, leaving only a fraction of my normal music on it. This might normally be really frustrating, but thankfully there were a few gems left, one of which was Phonat's "Set Me Free," one of my earliest and favourite introductions to electronic music.I owe a lot of my introduction to electronic music to one man in particular, a childhood friend who unfortunately has grown apart from me, but had the prescience to show me the likes of Fake Blood, Louis La Roche, and of course Phonat before seemingly anyone I had met at university, let alone our tiny hometown. We knew about Benny Benassi and deadmau5 but this was different, this was weird, trippy and ever so alluring. The synths sublimely satisfying, the groove glitchy yet gorgeous, and who would've thought a guitar could be used in a track like this. But then there's the mind-bending movement and turnt transitions that hold the key to this five minute track's genius. String sweeps and swells, followed by funky grooves and electro energy, there's no pinning this track, nor Phonat, down. Which leads me to the other track I was introduced to at the same time as "Set Me Free," the lush, lurid and revolutionary "Learn To Recycle," which was also released on his debut, eponymous album.
Even more glitchy and groovy than its picturesque predecessor, "Learn To Recycle" is eminently stylish and slick, again offering up garish guitar work atop a fantastically funky, ever changing electro soundscape. Clearly the work of a capable musician, the chords and playful synth work are stunning as is the genius guitar, but it's Phonat's multi-tier track building that makes this such a sensation. He manages to give it multiple lives and identities over the course of the nearly six minute run time, constantly bursting into flames and arising out of the ashes. Without listening and just reading this description you might think it difficult to dance to, but the hardest part is avoiding your jaw on the floor.

Listening all these years later, it's no wonder Skrillex was quoted as saying "Phonat is easily the most underrated producer [...] I don't know why he isn't the biggest thing out there." These tracks still stand the test of time, sounding as fresh and fire as the day they were released. Maybe we weren't ready for him back then, but I feel that if Phonat were to be a new artist these days, he'd have one of the biggest fan bases around. That said, there's no discounting his role in inspiring many of today's artists, so we certainly have that to be thankful for. However it would be cool to have new Phonat too, as his most recent release came back in 2017. Either way I really enjoyed this trip down memory lane, and hope you did too.

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