Mix and Arrangement of a song by Chad Nixon.
The sequel to hamsterdance.

Website Mix 2

Somberling

Love Gamer

I began recording this track after listening to a lot of Thundercat and Toro y Moi, so the foundation of the track is the bass part and progression.  I also wanted to write a song about my cat.  

This is also the first track that I collaborated with Chad Nixon, who added key and synth treatment, that worked perfectly with the mood.  

The Track was also used as an accompanying piece for an aerial piece, by Challenge Aerial https://youtu.be/lFnNIW6zYHQ

After reading a lot about evolutionary biology and DNA transcription errors, I got the image in my head that we are all just fuzzy creatures with built-in coping mechanisms that come from DNA coding errors (but that some and not all are of course, naturally selected).  In the process of natural selection, many codes get a "free ride" - in that they didn't have any advantage to survival or selection pressures, but still later on became integrated or co-opted as the organism evolved with new selection pressures.  Cat purring is a fascinating example:  is it for the comfort of the cat, or us?  Did it begin as a communication tool (signal to the mother when to feed)? What is the human counterpart of purring?

Coding Error

AKA "Something 2.0"... maybe a lil stew of all of maya's beats combined.......
who recognizes that marimba line! #iknowido #coronapotatoes? #more2come

star pool

slowjunkn JR singing

Space Wanderer

Darkness

JR Wicker "Darkness"

Digital anonymity does not always function as a binary in the modern digital age: identity unknown/ fully revealed.  Especially in the creation of art online, it is more like the selection of forms unknown to shape a new known identity.  Digital Phantoms is that kind of musical act, constantly moving and reshaping, but never really hidden.  
 Since moving to Mexico in 2020, producer/musician Vincent Gray wanted to take advantage of the ability to collaborate with anyone in any place.  He began a collaboration with long time bandmate J.R. Wicker in Atlanta and brother Ernie Gray in Nashville, TN.  EP1 became a collection of moody, prog, hiphop, and dream pop tracks, representative of the creative breadth of styles in which Gray can produce.  
 Around the same time, Vince continued producing and collaborating with his brothers, this time producing a collection of songs co-written with his twin brother Adam.  The project became a release under the moniker Twin Signals, and represented the music that the brothers absorbed together while growing up and playing in bands while in East Tennessee—primarily 60s - 90s rock and grunge. 
 By 2023, Vincent began experimenting with the songwriting process:  designing rearrangeable structures around melodies and motifs, building off the love of prog rock and Chicago post rock.  Always Already was the first fully realized LP of Digital Phantoms, containing elements of jazz, post rock, prog rock, shoegaze, and pop.  
 Digital Phantoms also continues to work with other artists in the producing and co-writing chairs.  The Jessie Leider & Digital Phantoms EP was released in 2023, and includes beautiful singing b Jessie on a mix of acoustic post-rock and textures a la Stereolab.  Digital Phantoms also helped co-produce, mix, and play on JR Wicker’s Weird Magic.  
 The new War of Regrets EP is the convergence of the greatest strengths of the twin brothers—melody and structure— and the first release under Digital Phantoms with long-time collaborators Michael Hull, who is also part of the Tennessee based music collective, Beare.