WL//WH Video Of The Day: PHANTOM HANDSHAKES “Cricket Songs”

Video Of The Day PHANTOM HANDSHAKES

After last month’s delicious “No Better Plan”, the New York-based lo-fi Dream Pop collaborative project of Federica Tassano and Matt Sklar, AKA Phantom Handshakes, continue to preview the forthcoming debut album “No More Summer Songs”, to be released on April 30, 2021 via DIY Slovakian label Z Tapes, with an animated video collage for the enticing new single “Cricket Songs”.

‘Cricket Songs’ is about teenage memories of long summer days spent at home, getting bored, and listening to music on the radio. We wrote it last summer when the city was going through an unbearable heat wave and Federica was unable to go back to her hometown in Italy to visit her family. Writing this song helped recall those old memories and overcome a bit of that ‘summertime sadness’

Twinkling guitar strings sew airy nervous tension through a mellow undertow of low bass vibrations and steady hypnotic beats to build a bittersweet haze around dreamy, sad female vocals’ nostalgic release of melancholic longings, while voice samples create an alternate dimension of background conversations reminiscent of childhood days.

Introspective lyrics dive into the angsty memories of a teenage summer to paint an intimate portrait of a youthful heart left pondering the brilliant “Cricket songs” droning in the twilight.

Daydreamy video ignites summer vibes through a sentient motion of warm colours, film stills, and family photos strategically placed and rotated to emerge as a 3-dimensional picture book full of fun in the sun. Psychedelic skies spin starry nights, neon clouds, and rainbow sunsets over retro 60s settings, patterns, and fashions, to transport the mind’s eye of imagination back to a whimsical time where sailboats zip through a windless horizon.

Phantom Handshakes first full-length LP “No More Summer Songs” is due on April 30, 2021 , Cassette & Digital, via Z Tapes. Already available on pre-order on Bandcamp.

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