Los Angeles Beat Alchemists sunking Announce New Album ‘I DON’T LIKE MY TELEPHONE’
"BAM BAM (ft. Takoda)" opens ‘I DON’T LIKE MY TELEPHONE’ - sunking's second album for ANTI- Records - like the sun breaking through the clouds. Anchored by a groovy low-end—imagine if a walking bassline suddenly started breakdancing—the song moves with a propulsive but laid-back rhythm that sounds like '90s drum & bass, floating from the jazz origins of the duo's past work towards something more electronic and open-ended. Featuring guitarist, vocoderist and producer takoda in both the track and new music video, watch him and the band simultaneously resist and embrace the technology of the telephone below.
Watch “BAM BAM (ft. Takoda)”
Part of Seattle jazz fusion group High Pulp for the better part of a decade, the band's members originally branched off into sunking to explore their other loves. From hip-hop to electronic music to indie rock, sunking is their time off to play whatever they wanted and so records like 2022's Smug shot off excitedly in all directions.
Part of that everything-all-at-once feeling comes from the fact that the two original members are polar opposites from each other: a producer, drummer and solo artist under the moniker Bobbyy, Bobby Granfelt lives in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles and brings his jazz and hip-hop sensibility to the table while Antoine Martel is a composer who embraces a more verdant lifestyle in a cabin outside of Seattle, works on films and makes eerie, sci-fi synth music under the name Sous Chef. Now a trio with High Pulp member Victory Nguyen joining the band on modular synth, saxophone and flute, their new album is different. The product of a real plan, instead of just recording on off days, ‘I DON'T LIKE MY TELEPHONE’ is tight, laser focused, and more representative of who they are as musicians.
Built around Granfelt's drum loops and Martel's latest synth gear, these songs were created as series of self-contained "micro-compositions" inspired by hip-hop beat tapes from acts like Madlib. In addition to all those new synths, they were fueled by an increasing love for electronic music artists like Galcher Lustwerk, The Field, and Susumu Yokota, whose 1994 cult classic Acid Mt. Fuji they cite as a particular inspiration.
The guest musicians also add a new dimension to the band's sound, pulling it towards R&B, funk, and even trip-hop—electronic music with a live sensibility. "We're huge fans of Flying Lotus and Thundercat, so working with Niki Randa was very special, especially because she hasn't put out a lot of music recently." they say. They met many of the album’s collaborators in their local Los Angeles scene, including Angel Deradoorian, a solo artist, member of Decisive Pink and former member of The Dirty Projectors, who collaborated with the band on the track “VELVET ROOM”.
"I DON'T LIKE MY TELEPHONE" is the album's breezy centerpiece, built on lightweight drums that flutter like nervous butterflies in your stomach, while romantic strings in the background gradually give way to a screechy lead gone haywire. Salami Rose Joe Louis’s vocals also add to the song’s sweet but volatile sound, capturing the lovesick feeling that underlines sunking's newfound vulnerability, where feelings take precedence over flashy playing. With "I DON'T LIKE MY TELEPHONE," they're slowing down and making more room for more complex emotions.
"This isn't an album making a statement about society or something. It's just cheeky,” Martel explains. “Of course, 'fuck my telephone.' It also goes to our love of machines, modular synths, and all that stuff. Our relationship to machines is a big part of this record. All this gear discovery is like our Renaissance. So many of our inspirations are solo electronic music producers. But we're a band. We play live instruments. Sometimes I go see people and I'm like, 'I wish you had a band. I wish you had a drummer.' That's us. We make music inspired by all these electronic producers, but we also play it live."