The Payphone Trio Announces Their Debut Release On Blkmarket Music With 4 Hardware-heavy Tracks
Cosmic JD, Tro, And Ryan W Join Forces To Deliver An Outstanding Work - Listen to our premiere of ‘Fool CiRcle’ from the ‘Unicorn System’ EP
Listen to the releases’ preview snippets as you read:
On the track “Where it Hertz” released late last year on Hypnotic Mindscapes, Toronto analogue craftsmen, Payphone, turned in a bouncy piece of introspective almost-electro that you could imagine someone slotting into a sunrise set during Movement weekend, just as easily as it could set off a Croatian festival stage. What set this particular piece of after hours serotonin pick-me-up apart, was its distinctly North-American flavor: the vocal sample and the chords, 100% Midwest. That a track this good was their debut release speak volumes to the hours Payphone (a trio composed of Cosmic JD, Tro, and Ryan W) have put in as DJs and producers, but also promoters, using their label and party series, Hypnotic Mindscapes, to showcase a tasteful selection of the finest in swung, looped, and machine-cut dance music.
It makes sense, then, that their debut EP lands on Taimur’s Blkmarket Music. Like the Hypnotic Mindscapes crew, Taimur knows how to craft records that can speak in a variety of languages simultaneously: groovy enough for the boat party, tough enough for the warehouse, and a little something for everywhere between. Take the first track off the 12”, “Don E = Darko O”: it starts with a sinister and claustrophobic bounce before robotic birds start chirping across the highend in wisps of dystopian ecstasy.
“Taimur knows how to craft records that can speak in a variety of languages simultaneously: groovy enough for the boat party, tough enough for the warehouse, and a little something for everywhere between.”
There is a similar ebb and flow in “Sea Sex Librarian” - the kicks hit with about as much lightness as a guillotine, but the synthline that snakes in around the 2-minute mark arrives like a punchline (to be fair, the song is called “Sea Sex Librarian”). These are tracks that balance their sordid darkness with just the right amount of cheekiness and swing, like a splash of soda in your single malt.
But our pick of the bunch, and the track we’re excited to premiere here, is the undeniable funk of the A2, “Fool Circle”. The track starts with a slithering bassline writhing across some twinkles and a touch of delay on the hi-hats that make them feel rubbery and buoyant. To top it all off, we get a hummable melody and some arpeggiated vocals (samples that, if you squint hard enough, have a slight Perlon resemblance in their refracted octaves). It’s the type of track that deployed at the right time (whenever we return to clubs again) will keep you locked and transition a dinner-and-a-movie Saturday night into an X-Rated Sunday morning. As a whole, the record is a striking debut for the Payphone lads and a fitting way to celebrate Blkmarket Music’s tenth release.
Words by Henry Ivry.
