After an 18 month journey through the depths, PHONDUPE has released his debut album ONYKIA, a nine-track record that effortlessly shape shifts through analog electronica, brooding vocals and lush, intricate production. Released on the producer’s very own label AIR CON RECORDS, ONYKIA is the culmination of a project that has birthed seven singles, three music videos and two art installations.

ONYKIA is a record bound by a concept alluding to the hidden giants of the deep sea - an allegory Phondupe chose to explore the darker corners of the mind. Blending sonic influences as disparate as DJ Rashad and John Cale, Phondupe covers some serious ground in nine tracks, exploring ambient, balearic and breaks while maintaining a grip on his alt-pop sensibilities. Thematically Phondupe unpacks themes like anxiety, belief, and identity, to craft a work that is layered both in texture and meaning.

Says Phondupe...

“Back in 2018, I was in Phondupe purgatory. I’d been off the scene for a while, with years of unfinished sketches. I decided to knuckle down and rework the tracks into a series bound by a common theme: I loved the idea of deep sea gigantism - that certain creatures, uninterrupted in the dark depths of the ocean, grow to 100x their regular form... A nice allegory for the untamed mind.

In late 2019, I started my own label Air Con Records. Abyssal -4400 dropped. And in we dived.

You’ve been hearing songs and watching videos from ONYKIA over the last 18 months (yes, it was meant to be shorter but 2020), and the album features two previously unreleased tunes.

ONYKIA feels less like a new beginning, more like a good purge.

It’s a weird sentiment to consider your debut album the end of a chapter. I wrestled with the idea of even calling it an album. But this felt like a genuine shedding of skin and I wasn’t about to label this thing an EP or a “mixtape”...

That said, I’m proud of that old skin. I stare at it now, removed. I see where it’s been, what it's seen. Me, but no longer of me. A vessel that got me to this moment.

And now?

I want you to enjoy it. I hope you find something in this collection of nine vastly different songs that speaks to you, that transports you. I hope these tunes help you navigate the depths the way they have helped me.

From the heart, thank you to everyone who helped me bring this project to life.

Rich x"

---

PURPLE SNEAKERS: “A thoroughly impressive debut body of work”
CLASH MAG: “ONYKIA is a dazzling, impossible-to-pin-down piece of work”
PILERATS: “A go-to producer amongst the depths of Australian electronica” 

CREDITS:

MUSIC:
All music written, produced and performed by Rich Lucano (Phondupe).

MIXING:
All tracks mixed by Phondupe and:
Mark Galup @ Reel Recording: Abyssal -4400, Neptuno, Eel City, Ama, Fangtooth
Antonia Gauci: Tranquila, Oxpecker, Grain
George Nicholas: Silo

MASTERING:
All mastering by Mark Galup @ Reel Recording, Nashville except Oxpecker (@andrei__eremin ).

COVER ART:
All cover art for the ONYKIA singles series and album by @emdillon_ @rowdyunderscore

ANIMATIONS:
All animations / Spotify Canvas by @Babekuhl

© AIR CON RECORDS
Released March 28, 2021

ONYKIA

A certain je nes sais quoi

A menacing soliloquy on the weight of inner conflict, this piece of avant-electronica blends analog synths, Chicago footwork and bluesy vocals - seemingly disparate worlds colliding to form yet another unique sonic landscape for boundary-pushing Sydney producer Phondupe, who opines, “…tired of bloodsuckers but you're making out with Dracula".

Hyperactive and aggressive, yet melodic and driving, this industrial pop song lives in a space that may have existed had Aphex Twin ever remixed Johnny Cash.

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Listen now on all platforms: ditto.fm/oxpecker

CREDITS:
Released November 11, 2020
All Music Written, Performed & Produced by Phondupe
Mix: Antonia Gauci
Master: Andrei Eremin
Cover Art: @emdillon_ @rowdyunderscore
© AIR CON RECORDS

Oxpecker

Good news! We'll be releasing a beautiful LP from Unknown Mobile next month called Daucile Moon. 

Daucile Moon, which follows @unknown-mobile releases on No Bad Days, Normals Welcome and Young Adults, started four years ago in Vancouver when Levi Bruce was recovering from a broken toe and collecting MIDI files he found in an old geocities archive. It was finished earlier this year in Montreal with help from Mike Silver, AKA CFCF, who added plaintive guitar to complete the album's placid and stargazing style of ambient and downtempo music.

The album takes its name from an old, obscure Canadian jazz song that Bruce describes as "pretty but also with a serious amount of melancholy," which could also describe his new record. In the vein of Pacific Rhythm label-mate Khotin's standout New Tab album, Daucile Moon comprises drowsy beats and spaced-out loops, referencing the pinnacle of early '90s chillout and ambient while infusing it with the dazed sound of Canadian electronic music in the 2010s.

Bruce's process in making Daucile Moon was long but leisurely. He took the melodies from those MIDI files and moved them over to his analogue outboard setup and then back to his computer, creating a digital-analog hybrid that sounds as pleasantly worn as a dog-eared novel. Live instrumentation, like Silver's classical acoustic guitar stylings on "A Windless March Ouest," mingles with occasional dance music references like the subtle acid squelch of "Ravers Sojourn" or the hazy breakbeat of "Oenology."

The album was inspired by various happy memories, from sharing wine with friends ("Oenology") to a dog that Bruce met ("Simone Can't Swim"). The result is a patient and personal record that highlights the best qualities of Bruce's previous work as Unknown Mobile, with his distinct style of melody and soundscaping set free from kick drums and the dance floor. It's telling that Bruce originally sent the record, at first called Melancholic Songs For Dogs, to his parents and two grandmas—this is beautiful, relaxing music whose appeal is universal.

Daucile Moon will be released digitally across all platforms and on limited edition cassette tape available through our online store, Bandcamp, and Seance Centre on July 14, 2019.

Mastered by Nik Kozub.

Thanks for listening!

Daucile Moon

Unknown Mobile - Oenology ft. CFCF

BRAND NEW SINGLE: PREMIERED VIA THE LINE OF BEST FIT
https://bit.ly/2GBJvGA

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Sydney producer Phondupe returns this July with the hypnotic stomper, Abyssal -4400. The first single from forthcoming debut album ONYKIA expands on the dizzying sounds that have taken the enigmatic performer to Dimensions Festival Croatia and in support of Jon Hopkins, Kiasmos and Machinedrum.  

Having had his music celebrated by the likes of EARMILK, Clash Magazine, & VICE,  Abyssal -4400 marks the producer’s first new material in three years. The track explores consciousness, anxiety and identity, as he dives into his own ethnic roots, sampling a 1950’s Calabrian fishing chant. 

******* 

SAYS PHONDUPE...

“ONYKIA as a project focusses on the dark giants of our own minds.  

I found myself really trying to unpack my own identity. I explored my roots as a Sicilian/Calabrian Australian & realised I'd never really heard my own ethnic culture represented in modern music. Only 50 years ago my family were herding goats in peasant villages in Southern Italy. 

Digging through hundreds of tracks, I found an archive of 1950's fishing chants recorded in Calabria by anthropologist Alan Lomax. When I heard "U Leva Leva" - I honestly froze up. I probably listened it to it on repeat for an hour, completely mesmerised by how raw and honest it was. It made me feel really connected. 

Abyssal -4400, is us taking that first dive into the dark, casting a line into the depths, unsure of what we’ll reel in". 

FOLLOW PHONDUPE
instagram.com/phondupe
phondupe.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/phondupe

*******

Produced, Written & Recorded by Phondupe. Mixed and Mastered by Mark Galup & Erik Thompson at Reel Recording in Nashville, TN (USA). 

Contains a sample taken from 'U Leva Leva ', Recorded by Alan Lomax, courtesy of Odyssel Productions, Inc.

Abyssal -4400

Taken from 'Watermelon Woman', released 23 August 2019 on Ninja Tune imprint Technicolour: https://yu-su.lnk.to/watermelonSo

Follow Yu Su -
Spotify: https://found.ee/yu-su-sp
Apple Music: https://found.ee/yu-su-am
Instagram: https://found.ee/yu-su-ig
Facebook: https://found.ee/yu-su-fb
Soundcloud: https://found.ee/yu-su-sc

Watermelon Woman

New record out ny Nehoki. 
We present you a full length player with nine songs for you to listen. 
Written by Nehoki (Asbjørn Elle, Magnus Krag, Rasmus Dahl Theisen, Milan Schwendson Zaks)
Mixed and produced by Milán S. Zaks. 
Recorded between May-September 2018 on peninsula Mols at Petersminde.
Out mid August. 

Get it from Safe: www.safedist.ro

More info here: http://helprecordings.dk/

Nehoki - Petersminde (SAINO-04) [Out mid August 2019]

Taken from 'Gone / Danger’ 12”, released 27 September on Ninja Tune: https://romare.lnk.to/goneSo

Follow Romare -
Spotify: https://found.ee/romare-sp
Apple Music: https://found.ee/romare-am
Facebook: https://found.ee/romare-fb
Twitter: https://found.ee/romare-tw
Youtube: https://found.ee/romare-yt
Soundcloud: https://found.ee/romare-sc

Gone

BUY / STREAM: fanlink.to/fangtooth

Phondupe returns with warped new single ‘Fangtooth’, out Oct 30 on the producer's new imprint, AIR CON Records - premiered via CLASH Mag UK.

‘Fangtooth’ follows on from the acclaimed ‘Abyssal -4400’, a single that blends ancestral folk with sparse electronica, described by Purple Sneakers as "an absolute stomper of a track” and a “post-club anthem”. Abyssal -4400 found itself on FBi 94.5 rotation, played on airwaves internationally, celebrated by mags like The Line Of Best Fit UK, and with a place in coveted Spotify electronic playlist ‘Altar’.

Having had his music celebrated by the likes of EARMILK, Clash Magazine, & VICE, Fangtooth is the second single from Phondupe’s forthcoming debut album ONYKIA.

He describes the record as a project “exploring the dark giants of our own minds", continuing the dizzying sounds that have seen him support Jon Hopkins, Kiasmos and Machinedrum.

Fangtooth’ sees Phondupe’s distinct vocals paired with a pulsing barrel rhythm that evokes a sense of primal danger, propelling the listener into an anxious cacophony of industrial percussion and blistering footwork beats before giving way to an anthemic synth line. It matches a frenetic instrumental against introspective vocals - calm floating through chaos - a common theme through Rich Lucano's music.

WORDS FROM PHONDUPE:

“ONYKIA as a project is focussed on the dark giants of our minds. On my last single, Abyssal -4400, we closed our eyes and stepped into the deep. Now, we face the depths.

The Fangtooth is one of the deepest living sea creatures in existence. And it looks like something from a horror film. Here we explore facing up to the things you’ve been avoiding - and being scared at what you find.

It was written to evoke a sense of both danger and helplessness; hurling towards the inevitable in the dark"

Fangtooth

Listen on Spotify / Apple Music: fanlink.to/eelcity
Watch the Video on Youtube: http://bit.ly/37klC0P

PHONDUPE is back with a stand-out piece of stomping, earthy electronica that continues his lineage of introspective, left-of-centre club tracks. EEL CITY, the third single from forthcoming debut album ONYKIA, is out today on the producer’s new label, AIR CON RECORDS.  

EEL CITY is a hypnotic, four-to-the-floor number with a shamanic spirit; a colourful feast of percussion, analog synths and understated vocals, weaving Cuban field samples while nodding to acid house and Leonard Cohen. It is inspired by the discovery of an eel colony in the uninhabitable depths of an underwater volcano, an allegory for survival in the face of adversity. 

"Some time ago I read about the discovery of an eel colony in the uninhabitable depths of an underwater volcano. Somehow these creatures had not only survived, but found a way to prosper, by living off the heat that came up through the cracks in the earth's core. 

I thought it was a pretty beautiful allegory for survival in the face of adversity - finding a way to make it through, despite everything life throws at you." - Phondupe

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“Astonishing… a dazzling, impossible-to-pin-down piece of work... this colour saturated feast recalls Hudson Mohawke in its physical vastness” 
CLASH MAG UK

"A surging, introspective dancefloor rhythm”
THE LINE OF BEST FIT

 “Moody, experimental, left of centre pop”
EARMILK
- 

Written, Produced, Performed & Recorded by Phondupe.
Mixed and Mastered by Mark Galup & Erik Thompson at Reel Recording in Nashville, TN (USA). reelrecording.com

Artwork by Robby Bennett & Em Dillon:
instagram.com/rowdyunderscore
instagram.com/emdillon_

Video by Babekuhl
babekuhl.com

© AIR CON RECORDS
aircon.bancamp.com

Eel City

Listen now on any platform: https://ditto.fm/neptuno-phondupe

"NEPTUNO is a tale of being pulled in two. Sometimes you’re floating through the cosmos without a care in the world, when lightning strikes and you’re sucked back into the depths" - Phondupe.

NEPTUNO is the fourth track from Phondupe's forthcoming record ONYKIA. It fuses ethereal ambient music and shamanic vocal samples with industrial breaks, a collision of two worlds; a tug-of-war between calm and chaos.

Haunting Cuban field samples, collected by Phondupe on multiple trips to Havana, float above a lush backdrop of undulating analog synthesizers while a gritty breakbeat ducks and dodges every turn. It’s a piece that explores unnerving uncertainty and the fight for clarity.

"A masterclass in contrast" - Pilerats
"Dazzling" - Electric Sound of Joy

All Bandcamp sales of this track will go towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation.

All Music Written, Performed & Produced by Phondupe
Mix: Mark Galup @ Reel Recording, Phondupe
Master: Mark Galup @ Reel Recording
Cover Art: @emdillon_ @rowdyunderscore

Neptuno

qu 1

This week for Select the Motion, we take a dark, heavy turn with none other than the very talented, Posture.

Posture (https://soundcloud.com/user-469703910) is a Sydney producer/DJ and member of the illustrious Velodrome Family. Since his emergence on the scene he has beamed a pure love for music through his events, releases and fortnightly show on Nomad Radio. From organising immersive raves to releasing on the Velodrome Label, Posture has been pushing the boundaries of dance culture in Sydney.

Select the Motion 009: Posture

Spook Mix 016 - Command D

SPORES OUT NOW on AIR CON RECORDS:
https://ditto.fm/spores-phondupe

Debut album, ONYKIA:
https://ditto.fm/onykia

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BOOKINGS / ENQUIRIES:
mgmt@phondupe.com

Neptuno

PHONDUPE

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