You’re driving down the road, listening to the radio. A song comes on. Do you keep listening or do you change the station? Take a chance, roll down the windows, turn up the volume and allow yourself to remember. Music does that. Phantom Phunk has done that. They brought back a moment in time with their newest release, Distant Kaleidoscopes. Vintage without even trying, classic yet brand new, this music is right out of their playbook. This new song will “inhabit your thoughts and meddle with your soul.”

Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. ~Charlie Parker

Walk into the room and take out your favorite vintage record album.  Spread the dry leaves across the top of the cover and hold it out in front of you.  Tap the cover from underneath, gently.  Look around the room, are you still alone?  Watch the seeds come to the top and roll off the album cover and drop to the green shag carpet below your feet. Don’t spill the pot, that wouldn’t be right.

The lonely piano starts playing, the drums kick in.  By the time the guitar hints at its presence, you are ready to open the door.  Slowly people start showing up; another night, another party. The trumpets sing. There they are, your crazy friends, in various states of dress and sobriety, ready to go again. Bongs get lit, the beer gets passed around and before you know it, crash! A bottle breaks and pills of all colors fall to the carpet.  Someone spins them into a complex pattern of colors and shapes. The music continues to get more complicated.  The pills and the pot get passed around and you are off.

The music demands your concentration, but you on turn the TV, sound all the way down.  The black and white flashes from the screen illuminate the room.  The drums command attention, the trumpet fills your head. The vintage guitar work satisfies your expectations, but you are waiting for that voice. You are expecting to hear Alex sing, but then you realize, you are singing in your head.  You are all alone, watching amazing colors spin right in front of you. That Distant Kaleidoscope is so close that you can almost touch it, yet it is too far to grab. Suddenly you hear a knock at the door.  Hurry, flush the evidence. The music stops abruptly and the night is over. The memory fades into the background of your existence.

This song has it all.  It has that middle of the night beer run kind of groove, that vintage 7-Up can with the flickering light bulb kind of feel, with a fabulous display of Afro hair, dark sunglasses and The Mod Squad all wrapped up into a well-honed digital masterpiece.  Yet, it is new and it is fresh and it is modern.  Distant Kaleidoscopes is all instrumental and beckons to the listener in no uncertain terms, “take a walk with me down memory lane and right into your future.”   Go ahead and listen, see where this song takes you. Drop me a line and let me know. I’d love to hear your story.