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 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.

-

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

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
released March 28, 2021

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

Grain

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
Released March 28, 2021

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

Tranquila

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

-

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

Out now on Air Con Records.
Listen now on all platforms: https://ditto.fm/ama-phondupe

Ama is a contemplative, ambient piece, taken from Phondupe's forthcoming debut album ONYKIA.  The track casts a trance through its ethereal synths that ebb and flow with a hypnotic oceanic sensibility in line with the producer’s recent singles, which explore the allegory of the deep sea. Angelic Japanese field recordings float through the track, recorded by Phondupe himself on amongst temples on Teshima Island, Japan. 

FROM PHONDUPE: 

"There’s a universal connectedness about the word “Ama”, which means something different in over 50 languages - “loves” in Italian, “now” in an Indigenous Aztecian tongue. It’s also the name of Japan’s infamous female free-divers who scale the bottom of the ocean for pearls.  ⁣⁣
⁣⁣
There's something in that - holding your breath for a pearl. ⁣
⁣⁣
A lot has changed in the last 6 months, and while we wait it out, submerged in uncertainty, looking for a glimmer, I've also learned to stop and enjoy the view underwater. ⁣⁣
⁣⁣
The field samples in this track were recorded outside a temple on Teshima Island in Japan, on a trip I took a few years ago. ⁣
⁣⁣
I hope it helps you dream x⁣"

--

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

All Music Written, Performed & Produced by Phondupe
Mix by Phondupe | Mastering by Mark Galup @ Reel Recording
Cover Art: @emdillon_ @rowdyunderscore
© AIR CON RECORDS

-

INSTA: http://instagram.com/phondupe
FB: http://facebook.com/phondupe
BANDCAMP: http://bandcamp.com/phondupe

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

-

“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

Hey friends, here is my new single, SILO.

I’ve been holding onto this track for a while, and there’s a bit of a back story…

So back in 2017 I was booked to play Dimensions Festival in Croatia. It was easily the biggest show of my life at the time and I went beast mode preparing for it. I wrote a bunch of new original music for the set (SILO was written as the finale). I’d rehearse before and after work 4-5 times a week, for months leading up to it. I was doing private performances to get feedback - I went all out.

One night I had a dream that people were running away from my set at the festival. I woke up sweaty and panicked but shrugged it off as a bit of anxiety.

 So I fly to Croatia after this huge buildup. I felt like I’d waited my whole life for this moment. I finish my line check and I’m on stage, ready to perform, when a mini cyclone sends the festival into evacuation. I froze. The wind and rain pelted down as I stood there in disbelief... watching people run away from the stage.

We hid in a tent behind the stage for a few hours, I felt the moment slipping away from me. Thanks to the kindness of French artist Folamour, when the festival re-opened at 3am, I managed to play a shortened set. But SILO was never heard.

The whole experience put me in a pretty low place for a while and I found it hard to make sense of it. Creativity can be a toxic relationship.

But it can also be the ultimate catharsis.

So once I had licked my wounds and stopped waving my fist at the universe, I decided to re-write the track to channel my experience - the chaos, the fight, the questioning. Life imitating dreams imitating art, or something like that.

Excited to share the final version with you today.

Here it is.   

SILO.

---

SPOTIFY: https://spoti.fi/3pW7zaN

---

Released February 10, 2021 via AIR CON RECORDS
Music Written, Performed & Produced by Phondupe
Mix: George Nicholas
Master: Mark Galup @ Reel Recording, Nashville

COVER ART:
Em Dillon @emdillon_
Robby Bennet @rowdyunderscore

Silo

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

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

-
BOOKINGS / ENQUIRIES:
mgmt@phondupe.com