Fluttering Los Angeles Trio Sunking Release New Album ‘I DON’T LIKE MY TELEPHONE’ Today
Glitchy, jangly and animated, "BAM BAM" 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. Out today, blast these chill, far-out bliss tracks and you won’t even need your A/C unit to stay cool. Listen to ‘I DON’T LIKE MY TELEPHONE’ HERE.
Part of a vibrant local scene in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, producer and drummer Bobby Granfelt brings in his jazz background and experimental hip-hop influences like Pink Siifu and Shabazz Palaces to this record, but they're twisted into new shapes as part of composer Antoine Martel's pandemic-era "electronic awakening." His recent obsession with modular synthesis is the bedrock of this album—along with Granfelt's rhythm section, which is processed, reversed and chopped up until they sound more like the drum machines and breakbeats in jungle and house music. Now a trio with High Pulp member Victory Nguyen joining the band when playing live on modular synth, saxophone and flute, this record has a new sparkle and sheen that combines the duo's serious musical chops with rich production values and enriches dance music foundations with cheeky solos and musical tangents.
Sunking approached ‘I DON'T LIKE MY TELEPHONE’ as a series of self-contained "micro-compositions," inspired by hip-hop beat tapes from acts like Madlib, and built around Granfelt's drum loops and Martel's new gear. 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. Title track “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 featured 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.
"For me, the important line is ‘I should call you more’—then, ‘but I don't like my telephone.’ I feel that" Martel says. "This isn't an album making a statement about society or something. It's just cheeky. 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."
To celebrate the album’s release, sunking will be performing at the monthly Highland Park DIY show Rare Candy on July 26. Tickets are available HERE.