There is a delicate urgency that drives Phosphene’s “Black Sheep.” Guitar and percussion keep the melody and rhythm lean and spacious as Rachel Frankel sings in warm yet melancholic tones a story of almost folkloric dimensions of shame and oppression and in the end a memory of a moment of escaping from that dynamic or situation born of a legacy of familial and cultural indoctrination and/or resulting internalized behaviors. The song hits like folk-inflected, dark dream pop and its clear lines of melody shimmer in moments with the energy of shaking off a momentary chill or the echoes of bad habits coming to haunt your present. When the instrumentation of the song interact like weather phenomena across the song it brings a physicality to a song in a style that might otherwise feel as ethereal as it generates a lightly bracing mood. Watch the evocative black and white video for “Black Sheep” on YouTube and follow the Portland, Oregon-based band at the links below. Phosphene’s new album Transmute releases on September 15, 2023.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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