Phantom Horse by Phantom Horse

Phantom Horse is the duo of Ulf Schütte and Niklas Dommaschk from Hamburg and Kiel (home of seminal Digitalis Recordings artist Jürgen Müller). Schütte is a (part-time) member of Datashock, Black To Comm, Aosuke et al and has recently released his modular synth explorations under the Alien Radio moniker on a (sold-out) Dekorder split-LP with Keith Fullerton Whitman and a 4-way split 7“ with Köhn, Ducktails and Peaking Lights on Kraak. Dommaschk plays guitar, synth and electric piano.

With the aid of a drum machine and (acoustic & synth) percussion the duo creates polyrhythmic and refreshingly brief song-based compositions influenced by the tuneful melancholy of Moondog, Minimal Music of the 60’s and 70’s, a deep love for the early electronics of Cabaret Voltaire and (kind of inevitable) the whole Cluster/Harmonia axis of German experimentalism. The latter being a major reference point with their pioneering explorations of rhythm & melody within seemingly abstract textures.

Phantom Horse create a similarly exciting fusion of bleeping modular/analog synths and electric guitar with gorgeous melodies coming from arpeggiated electric piano riffs while the hypnotic background rhythms from both guitar and percussion are hinting towards Krautrock as well as African music (or its 2nd hand use on albums like Eno/Byrne’s Bush Of Ghosts respectively).

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