After a year packed with a massive touring schedule, including two national headline tours and supports for heavyweight acts like Method Man & Redman, DJ Premier and The Beatnuts; indie Australian hip-hop artist Phatchance is ringing in 2011 with the release of a unique, acoustic hip-hop offering titled Inkstains (Acoustic).
Crowned a Triple J Unearthed, MYSPACE.COM and SBA Music Featured Artist, as well as packing out venues nationally on his Inkstains and I Forget, Sorry! 2010 tours’, Phatchance has quickly become Sydney’s biggest unsigned hip-hop artist. Inkstains (Acoustic) includes acoustic renditions of popular songs from his debut album Inkstains (Build It Up, Mountain Of Glass,) as well as an entirely new track Infinity. The EP takes cues from the indie-folk revival and features instrumentation and harmony work reminiscent of Laura Marling, Boy & Bear and Mumford & Sons. The instrumentation is organic and lush; banjo ostinato’s revolve around mandolin and acoustic guitar textures and pay homage to hip-hop roots through thick double bass grooves and clever, introspective song writing. The disc breaks’ entirely new ground for Australian hip-hop music and introduces a score of new sounds for the genre – a typical ‘unplugged’ release this is not.
The lead single Build It Up features an interstate, Unearthed networked collaboration with independent Brisbane folk pop sweet hearts Charlie Mayfair, who lend their emotive three part harmonies to a song which captures the essence of young love and the inevitably contradictory emotions which come with it. At times Imogen Heap and at others Lupe Fiasco an infectious chorus, clever harmonies and tight performances merge in a single sure to turn heads on the national stage. Other stand outs include a previously unreleased offering Infinity taken from Chance’s sophomore album scheduled for release later this year – the track is movingly arranged and proves why Chance has earned labels such as ‘a masterful storyteller’ (The Australian) and ‘wisdom beyond his years’’ (Onion Mag).
The release will be launched with a full live band through a FREE, three week, acoustic residency at Sydney’s popular Oxford Art Factory on the 11th, 18th and 25th of February, before being taken across the country in a limited run of dates at intimate venues. Phatchance will be joined by stage partner Coptic Soldier, Charlie Mayfair and Sydney local Atlas B Salvensen.
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