Dorks And Losers

What do you get when two DJs start a band to scratch a long-gestating itch to make their own music? If you are Daniel Col­las and Sean Mar­quand, the answer is the eight-member New York-residing The Phe­nom­e­nal Hand­clap Band.

It’s a silly band name, and my first impres­sion was an alt-folk indie band from the Appalachian Moun­tains. And yes, after lis­ten­ing to the first sec­onds of their self-titled debut, I knew I couldn’t be fur­ther from the truth.

I prob­a­bly should have read a lit­tle about the band, and then I would have taken a clue that the two New York under­ground club DJs would fol­low more along the lines of fel­low New York elec­tronic disco band Her­cules And Love Affair.

But to be fair The Phe­nom­e­nal Hand­clap Band is less house and more pseudo-experimental elec­tronic pop à la Black Moth Super Rain­bow, and even then that’s sort of a stretch con­sid­er­ing how much of a clas­sic rock vibe per­me­ates TPHB’s sound. I couldn’t help but recall the first time I had heard Deep Pur­ple’s “Smoke On The Water” when lis­ten­ing to the slow body-moving “Give It A Rest” with images of scant­ily clad women danc­ing alone in a haze of smoke.

Rewind­ing song and repeat­ing imag­i­na­tion track.

“The Jour­ney To Serra da Estrela” opens as a retro funk num­ber with a synth beat that’s one part sci­ence fic­tion, one part video game, and two parts blax­ploita­tion (think Shaft). There’s a lit­tle more sex­ual energy in the soul­ful “Tes­ti­mony” and the psy­che­delic “The Mar­tyr” rel­ishes in its throw­back to the folksy sixties.

Numer­ous guests like Calla’s Aure­lio Valle and TV On The Radio’s Jaleel Bun­ton unite with Col­las, Mar­quand, and the other six TPHB mem­bers (Patrick Wood — drums, Nicholas Movshon — bass, Luke O’Malley — gui­tar, Laura Marin — per­cus­sion, Bing Ji Ling — gui­tar, and Joan Tick — per­cus­sion) for some inter­est­ing mixes. None more so than the infec­tious dance track “15 To 20″ where L’Trim’s Lady Tigra joins in the fun.

The Phe­nom­e­nal Hand­clap Band’s debut is a pleas­ant album. It isn’t so appro­pri­ate for a club out­ing, but def­i­nitely should be played in the back ground as you’re enjoy­ing a lit­tle 4:20 action.

[photo (top) via Meaghan Mon­tagano | pho­tos (mid­dle + bot­tom) via FotonovaNYC/AlexSolmssen]
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Track list:

1. The Jour­ney To Serra da Estrela
2. All Of The Above
3. Tes­ti­mony
4. Give It A Rest
5. You’ll Dis­ap­pear
6. 15 To 20
7. Dim The Lights
8. I Been Born Again
9. The Mar­tyr
10. Tears
11. Baby
12. The Cir­cle Is Broken

Pop­u­lar­ity: 1% [?]