After recently sharing the last singles from his forthcoming album If I Tell U, Phaseone is back to share the stream of the new record in its entirety before it is released by Williams Street Records tomorrow. Gorilla Vs. Bear has described the unique sonic world that Phaseone has created in this record, “expansive and dreamily engaging…his most impressive work yet.” Listen to the album above, and grab the entire thing in its entirely tomorrow at www.adultswim.com/phaseone
About Phaseone:
Brooklyn’s Andrew Jernigan a.k.a. Phaseone wouldn’t compare the music he makes to anything he listens to (or anything he doesn’t, for that matter), but that’s probably because it doesn’t sound like anything else out right now. “It’s hard because I subconsciously separate my music and the music I like,” he says. “I can’t see them existing in the same world.” But they have, and will continue to do so with the release of If I Tell U on May 7, 2013. The album comes by way of Adult Swim’s William Street Records, the home of Killer Mike’s R.A.P. Music, Dethklok’s Dethalbum III and countless other projects widely acclaimed for pushing the musical envelope.
If I Tell U is a sample-free journey spanning the many moods, ideas and inclinations of its creator. The album’s opening track, “Blood Spirit I,” is airy and haunting until the beat drops and it becomes full on confrontational. Likewise, “Hunter,” buried a bit farther into the trip, is plodding and dense but buoyed by shadowy vocals throughout. The album runs the gamut of climate and emotions breaching a sort of dark side at times, but pulling back into the light before its conclusion.
Jernigan’s beginnings as an artist go back to high school with hip hop production, fiddling around with equipment he didn’t recognize in a friend’s home studio. “I had no clue what I was doing but I liked putting together tracks,” he says. “I liked being able to do that without having to play an instrument.” He began making rap beats around 2004, and shortly thereafter, fed up with the rat race of the scene, started to explore some of his more unconventional influences. “Working with rappers I got really tired and annoyed with everything, and just said ‘f*ck it,’ and started doing what I wanted to do,” he says. “If it meant that it wouldn’t sound good with someone rapping on it, fine.”
Originally from St Louis, Jernigan’s influences span even the genre that gave him his start. He cites both Slum Village and Three 6 Mafia as early favorites, but could never limit himself to just one kind of music. “It’s always had sort of a hip hop structure,” he says of his compositions, “mainly the drum programming, but I started bringing in elements of other music that I have always liked, like jungle, shoegaze, techno and it was all natural and felt really personal.”
2009 brought Thanks But No Thanks and also White Collar Crime, remix projects which garnered Jernigan some of his earliest acclaim, boasting versions of beloved Panda Bear and Burial tracks. Over the years Jernigan’s been able to build his fan base through continued downloads of the aforementioned projects as well one-off remixes and original tracks leading up to If I Tell U. His music today though is much more than the sum of his influences, Jernigan carving out a place for himself among the foremost musicians of each and every genre that made him who he is. So much so in fact that he’d rather the music itself tell his story. “I have no problem letting the music speak for me and represent what I’m about,” he says. And if that doesn’t say much, it’s only because you’re not listening yet.
PHASEONE
IF I TELL U
(WILLIAMS STREET RECORDS)
MAY 7, 2013
1 Blood Spirit I
2 Bodega
3 Hunter
4 Tangiers
5 Hexagon Kingdom
6 Bianca
7 Tropicalist
8 Arsenal Magnolia
9 Kings
10 Dialogue
11 Phaseone
About Williams Street Records:
Williams Street Records is the independent record label associated with Adult Swim. Based in Atlanta and Los Angeles, the group is responsible for the creation and marketing of albums across a wide range of artists and genres. Previous albums include the best-selling Dethklok: The Dethalbum and The Dethalbum II based on Adult Swim’s Metalocalypse animated series, Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Have Yourself a Meaty Little Christmas, soundtracks for The Venture Bros. and Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! The label also works with artists unaffiliated with Adult Swim, including Danger Mouse and MF Doom, Witchdoctor and more.
Adult Swim (AdultSwim.com), launched in 2001, is Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.’s network offering original and acquired animated and live-action series for young adults. Airing nightly from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. (ET, PT), Adult Swim shares channel space with Cartoon Network, home to the best in original, acquired and classic entertainment for youth and families, and is seen in 99.4 million U.S. homes.
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news, entertainment, animation and young adult media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.
photo credit – Kyle Dean Reinford