Phoebe Rings - "Get Up"

Photo by Frances Carter

We've been heavily digging the dream pop sound of New Zealand's Phoebe Rings. The musical project of jazz-school-trained pianist Crystal Choi has a new single out that changes up their sound a bit while still sounding like Phoebe Rings. "Get Up" is the first song bassist Benjamin Locke sings lead vocals on, but that's not the only change. We've been referencing that the band's previous singles sound like a dream pop version of Stereolab, and while "Get Up" has a dream pop vibe to it, this is the funkiest we've heard them sound so far. It's much more jazz leaning than previous singles, and almost has a 70's easy listening sound... if 70's easy listening had a bit of an edge to the smoothness. Phoebe Rings have such an interesting sound on this one, and it's well worth a few listens to make sure you're truly hearing everything going on.

Benjamin Locke says of the band's latest single:

“This was written in a period where I was listening to a lot of disco, particularly Nile Rodgers productions (Chic, Sister Sledge). Around a similar time I rewatched The Matrix. In the opening scene, Trinity is being chased by agents and says to herself ‘Get up Trinity, just get up.’ I thought the notion of willing yourself to get up could be interesting to play around with and that scene stuck with me for a bit. In older disco tracks there is often this imperative language (‘Everybody Dance!,’ ‘Leave your cares behind’) – ‘Get up, just get up’ just kind of fell into place. We gave it a pretty comprehensive disco treatment with lots of strings, bvs and a searing Arp solo.”

You can watch the video for "Get Up" below. Aseurai is due out June 6 on Carpark Records, and is available for pre-order here. For more on Phoebe Rings, check out the artist's website.