Part of Seattle jazz fusion group High Pulp for the better part of a decade, the band's members originally branched off into sunking to explore their other loves. From hip-hop to electronic music to indie rock, sunking is their time off to play whatever they wanted and so records like 2022's Smug shot off excitedly in all directions.
Part of that everything-all-at-once feeling comes from the fact that the two original members are polar opposites from each other: a producer, drummer and solo artist under the moniker Bobbyy, Bobby Granfelt lives in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles and brings his jazz and hip-hop sensibility to the table while Antoine Martel is a composer who embraces a more verdant lifestyle in a cabin outside of Seattle, works on films and makes eerie, sci-fi synth music under the name Sous Chef. Now a trio with High Pulp member Victory Nguyen joining the band on modular synth, saxophone and flute, their new album is different. The product of a real plan, instead of just recording on off days, ‘I DON'T LIKE MY TELEPHONE’ is tight, laser focused, and more representative of who they are as musicians.
Built around Granfelt's drum loops and Martel's latest synth gear, these songs were created as series of self-contained "micro-compositions" inspired by hip-hop beat tapes from acts like Madlib. In addition to all those new synths, they were fueled by an increasing love for electronic music artists like Galcher Lustwerk, The Field, and Susumu Yokota, whose 1994 cult classic Acid Mt. Fuji they cite as a particular inspiration.
