Its been some time since we've seen an album from Phrase but the wait is nearly over! When phrase dropped clockwork in 2009 it seems that he took his music to a new level with tracks like spaceship and Clockwork, but with the release of Babylon tomorrow the stage is set for the bar to be raised higher once again.
When Phrase set out to produce his latest album, Babylon he wanted to create something that sounded like he was an emcee from the 60’s. Although Phrase listens to, loves and makes hip hip his always been influenced by british music from the 60’s with groups like The Kinks and Small Faces having a great influence on his life. He believes that Babylon is the strongest songwriting and most exciting music that he has produced in his career, a statement that i’m sure that many of us will agree with.
Phrase speaks about the album mix as the most emotional part of the album. Mainly because with the mix down and making final decisions on how each song will sound its like shutting the door on a chapter of his life. He feels that he has many mixed emotions about the mix, as nerves set in as to weather its perfect but theres also that strong sense of excitement of what is to come.
With Babylon Phrase took a different approach to writing the tracks, compared to the processes used over the past two albums, Talk With Force and Clockwork. Phrase wrote the entire album at home and the album dose not feature any samples with all original music instead. At the end of last year he got married and during the production of the album his wife helped to workshop while sitting at home with the guitar and keys. The approach to the album was that of a more traditional song writing as such instead of just getting beats from a producer and writing over them.
He mixed and recorded the album in Sydney but had all of the lyrics written before heading to Sydney. During the recording process he says that he felt a lot of pressure from the success of his previous albums But felt as thought the past works were very different to this album due to his personal experiences in life. Turning 30 this year and getting married last year he says that he feels as though he has grown up and is in a better place personally than he was when he was recording Clockwork. In saying this he found it hard to find subject topics that he was passionate about enough to write about but he believes that this has only led to better music.
The album features some big names including Jimmy Barnes and Ales Sparticadia. The track Velvet Glove ft Jimmy Barnes is one that Phrase clearly has a love for as he felt so strong about it that even know it was not a single, and rather just another album track he felt the need to get Jimmy Barnes on the hook. He wanted Barnes as he felt that there was no one else in the country that had a strong enough voice for the sound Phrase was after.
The album artwork is by an artist Gus Luni. When he saw the artwork it immediately spoke to him and Phrase believed that it clearly said Babylon to him. The title for the album comes from the idea that over the past few years Phrase has found his feet and now knows what he is on about in life.
The album hits the shelfs tomorrow so head down to your local JB Hi-Fi or any good record store or head to iTunes and grab you self of the album. For the mean time head over to http://babylon.phrasemusic.com/ to stream the album. Big ups to Phrase and all those who worked on the album this ones sure to be a banger!
