Out today, “Cricket Songs” is a hazy gem from Phantom Handshakes, exuding a shimmering and dreamy soundscape. The Brooklyn-based project is a collaboration between Matt Sklar (Exiles) and Federica Tassano (Sooner, Mônetre). Jangly guitars and a nocturnal synth-laden undercurrent complement vocals that simultaneously express a delicate enamoring and building-up emotion. The subtle melodic shift around 02:30 is melodically consuming, the vocals and guitars intermingling with concluding passion and yearning. “Cricket Songs” is a thorough success from Phantom Handshakes.
The track is the second single from Phantom Handshake’s upcoming full-length, No More Summer Songs, out April 30th on Z Tapes.
Phantom Handshakes elaborate more on the track and video below:
“‘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.”
For the video we wanted to capture the warm, melancholy vibe of the song and have it feel almost like an old photo album come to life, combining family photos with vintage stock images and film stills to create an animated collage.”
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“Cricket Songs” and other memorable tracks from this month can also be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Best of March 2021’ Spotify playlist.
The track is also featured in the genre-based, best-of Spotify compilation Emerging Dream-Pop.
