This is burning bodies for fun. The dirt and the dub rolled into a neon opiate. Hip-Hop as tangled helix. Psychedelia without the lava lamps and baggage. Disorienting and unsettling, lit with seraphic howls and slapping rap drums. Paul White and Red Ferguson forming like voltage striking barbed wire. Three songs, all cohesive and strange, idling at their own pace and splitting follicles. It feels fresh and rare without coming off contrived, the weirdest idea in 2015.
It’s closest analogues are Atoms for Peace, Darkside, and the Low End Theory, but it sounds like none. Maybe a young Thom Yorke doing trip-hop revival and you’d get closer? Probably not. No official release date exists for what’s being called Phosphorus Philosophers. Only a 48-hour listening party, available below. As the prophet Too Short once said: get it while the getting is good. You can and you should.
A few words on the EP, courtesy of the Ferguson:
“We initially heard of Paul White through PoW and really liked his blend of psychedelia and hip-hop, specifically “The Strange Dreams of Paul White.” We were interested in collaborating with a producer who could help us achieve a unique hip-hop sound.
The collaboration started by sending him the 3 demos and allowing Paul to go off in any creative direction he was inspired to go. Then each song was edited in a series of back and forths trying to find a good middle ground between where we started and where Paul went. It was done entirely through digital communication (as we are in L.A. and he’s in London ) and our most intimate moment thus far has appeared in the form of a 15 minute video call on Skype in the earlier stages.
Lastly, we’ve been working on the live versions of these songs incorporating Paul’s sounds and ideas for a version 3.0. He’s supposedly coming to L.A. this summer to work with an L.A. rapper and we’re planning to get a show together with him (maybe involving PoW?).”
