We’ve got ourselves an avant-garde pop record dosed up to the eyeballs with good time aesthetics, dirty, lo-fi techniques, and some 80s electronic circuitry. Just so you know, the name is inspired by a piece of Greek mythology (Phaedre, daughter of Minos and Pasiphë) and the group comprises Hooded Fang’s Daniel Lee and April Aliermo, alongside Airick Woodhead from Doldrums.

In Decay packs a funked up guitar riff and a chorus line that sways like some new anti-anthem for the parties underground. It also happens to be an addictive, semi-disco, funky bass-lining tune with a great, slight-dazed vocal from April Aliermo.

You feel kind of cool just listening to this, pitched somewhere on the outskirts of everything you thought had it going on – setting up with their own cult rules, Phèdre are refreshing to say the least. You won’t get a hold on it, you’ve got hip hop, golden age, circa early 90s, cutting in on Cold Sunday, followed with a sultry female whisper. Or check the manic electro and strummed storm on Ode to the Swinger. How about when things get dark on Love Ablaze – it’s a simultaneously soulful and swooning nightmare. Crashed snares and whining electrics all fired up.

With their heady mix of vocals (an awesome baritone among them), fuzzy production values and a taste for infectious rhythm, Phèdre seem to be making it up as they go along. So it follows that they’ve recorded one of the most exciting and skewed pop records of 2012 – end of.

-Marnie Reed-