Born out of the suburb of Greenwich, New York two-piece Phantogram is the humble project of school friends Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel. Mixing sparse Hip-hop beats and old Soul melodies, soaring vocals and dark, brooding lyrics, Phantogram have created a sound cool enough to make Brandon Flowers’ moustache feel lame. The release of their debut album Eyelid Movies in September has seen a sudden, marked interest in the band, and their popularity (especially among critics) is growing at an undeniable and generally ridiculous rate.

Creation of Phantogram: When Josh and Sarah met after having been away after finishing school, it was more than just a casual reunion. Josh showed Sarah the beats and demos he had been whiling away his time on and Sarah was “instantly inspired to work with him”. A year and a half and two swift name changes later and the Phantogram that exists today was born.

Song To Win Over an Audience: With its gritty guitar hook and boldly ethereal vocals, ‘When I’m Small’ is sure to be a track to move audiences from the inside out.

Secret Sixth Sense 1: Sarah from Phantogram has the enviable ability to watch the whole of ‘Gigli‘without throwing up.

Secret Sixth Sense 2: Listen for the guitar loops and elaborate sampling of strings on ‘Eyelid Movies’, and it’s a hard fact to deny: Phantogram are in fact Andrew Bird and KT Tunstall. One of the main reasons that the band has such a sparse touring schedule is that it takes a full 8 hours of prosthetic work and extensive vocal surgery to enable them to pull off their flawless disguises.

Failed Ambitions: One quick listen to the Phantogram’s processed rhythm section it should be more than apparent that Josh harbours a secret desire to be the greatest white rapper since Vanilla Ice. Have no doubt that if it weren’t for Phantogram he’d be throwing up in the back of a Detroit club at this very moment.

Phantogram Fans: An eclectic mix of old skool Hip-hop fanatics and those who paid good money for ‘In Rainbows’, brought together by the common desire of wanting to invent the Phantogram shuffle. ? 

The Phantogram Experience: Synth-ridden low key beats which give fans an uncontrollable desire to move their feet, that is when they aren’t spending their time searching every corner of the stage for where the other band members are hiding.

Contested possibly only by Bob Dylan’s collection of X-Mas songs, eastcoast hardcore hero Wesley Eisold putting out a slo-mo synthies pop-goth record is undoubtedly one of the most bizarre stories to come out of crossover thinking in a long time. Joining the London Symphony Orchestra might very well be the next step for Mr Eisold, but for now here’s to riding the dark waves of Love Comes Close, no matter what it is it comes close to.

Creation of Cold Cave: This is the classic tale of a guy of reputation giving the right people a call at the right time, turning what started as noise legend Wesley Eisold’s solo project into a Philadelphia indie dream team including Sarah Lipstate (Noveller) and Caralee McElroy (Xiu Xiu ) and lots of weirdly dated eighties vibes. No guestlove drumming on this one.

Song To Win Over an Audience: Anything called 'The Laurels Of Erotomania' and featuring some hardly discernible mumblings over a repetitive synthie line is sure to find some friends in all the wrong places.

Secret Sixth Sense 1: One of Eisold’s favourite movies is the 1971 giallo classic Black Belly of the Tarantula which features a killer who first paralyzes his victims in order to to slice open their bellies. Have fun cross-referencing that background with the band’s lyrics!

Secret Sixth Sense 2: Eisold has won a copyright protection case with Fall Out Boy and as a consequence was given songwriting credits for three songs on the latter’s terrible 2007 record “Infinity On High.” Ain’t that a dandy!

Failed Ambitions: Obviously, nobody in this group was ever out of other musical options, but were they all to fall to pieces, Philly still loves its murals and is always looking for fresh talent, and Eisold owns his own publishing house called Heartworm Press.

Cold Cave’s Fans: Most likely not fans of Eisold’s earlier work in American Nightmare or Some Girls. It's ok, if he prays to Jesus for forgiveness, he's sure to miss the ol' Hell path... 

Cold Cave’s Experience: (Don't) expect an all-sunny evening full of joy and laughter that will forever lift you up from the depths of everyday hopeless darkness, again enabling you to cherish the cherry blossom that is life! This ferocious snyth-noise act could easily rip the shirt of your back with their mechanical melody in three seconds flat. Beat that Dr "Hulk-hating" Bruce Banner!

Words: James Conlon and Friedrich Reip

Photography: Doron Gild (Phantogram)