Album Review: 8AM by Teengirl Fantasy

Released five years after their guest-heavy sophomore release, Tracer (featuring Panda Bear, Kelela and Laurel Halo), Teengirl Fantasy's latest release, 8AM, feels more like a spiritual predecessor to their 2010 debut, the similarly titled 7AM. Where tracks from their last LP began to utilize traditional song structures, complete with choruses and bridges, the 12 tracks that make up 8AM find the Ohio duo returning to the more shapeless, free-flowing dance tracks that constituted their early material. Although they've made some major adjustments to their sound over the years, moving away from vocal samples and becoming more infatuated with Detroit techno and Chicago house (rather than British R&B and Southern soul), Teengirl Fantasy still seem to have the ability to make their songs sound large and present.

Full Review >>

8AM is the first album in five years from Teengirl Fantasy, AKA Logan Takahashi and Nicholas Weiss, who since 2009 have blended pop, R&B and and dance music. In the same way that Oneohtrix Point Never reworked Chris De Burgh's "Lady In Red" on his track "Nobody Here," a track on the artist's Sunsetcorp YouTube page, Weiss and Takahashi had manipulated bits of Rose Royce ("Love Don't Live Here") and Mariah Carey ("Touch My Body") on earlier tracks. Where 2012's Tracer experimented with house and techno, 8AM recalls their debut, 7AM, but with a more refined approach.

Full Review >>

8AM, the third album by electronic duo Teengirl Fantasy, meditates on the diminishing remnants of a night out. The band describes it as “music that replicates that headspace when you’ve seen the sun come up, but sleep is still way off”. Traces of dance music crop up regularly, but Logan Takahashi and Nick Weiss generally withhold direct doses of such outright pleasure.

Full Review >>