A Vibrant Remix Release from Fantomacs Brings A Dance-Pop Sound

R.A.G.
5 minutes ago
4 min read

Joerg Peters, the producer releasing music under the moniker Fantomacs, is pretty well known for his level of experimentation and bringing together some jazz styles along with blending ambient electronic, house, dance, and EDM into what he does. This is an artist and producer who pushes his own boundaries with almost every song he puts out there, and his library of those releases is actually pretty extensive.

The project can go in a smooth jazz direction, pianos and spacey synthesizers, letting the song breathe and collaborating with other performers to expand those horizons even further, one of whom shows up semi-often to offer her unique brand of spoken word and poetry, named Heidi Marlen Grau.

Her voice does have quite a unique tone to it, and he puts her in songs that do lean more towards that jazz approach, whether it's pianos, horns, or others.

Fantomacs also dabbles in folk, singer-songwriter, and more. There are songs out there that have a glorious sort of warmth to them, acoustic guitar-driven, and very inviting.

He's not afraid to bring funky elements out, layering keys and giving deep-rooted grooves, or leaning more towards that electronic sound.

There is, pretty often, a great pop sensibility that exists between the lines and I honestly feel like this entire project is something that is a bit unafraid to blur those lines.

The songs that come from this project seem like they're based on what the artist was feeling at the time. Maybe he heard a certain instrument and a song grew From there. Maybe he found a sound or tone on the keyboard, and the song ended up flourishing from that.

Either way, this is someone who is able to build songs from the ground up and really have them come through in a way that makes amazing sense.

Yes, this is a very diverse catalog, but there is a consistent element or glue that holds everything together a lot of the time.

His most recent Endeavor, "Carry You", is a synth-pop single.

This is the kind of song that can easily be on the airwaves of virtually any pop station out there and he utilizes his knowledge of creating sound and tone to make a song that definitely feels good, brings a lot of light-heartedness and fun to that approach, and we recently have come to find out that this is actually a remix of a song released in 2021, originally by Rules.

Upon finding all of this out, I immediately went and listened to the original track.

What Joerg has done is brilliant. He stayed very true to the original song. It was able to keep a lot of the arrangement, progression, and the heart of the song itself intact perfectly.

What he changed was the tone of everything. The sound of the synthesizers is completely different, and this is a real game-changer when it comes to remixing.

It also felt like he added more percussive elements to the song, letting it feel a little more forward-moving and sonically present.

All the sort of frequency is a little updated, a little different, a little brighter, and still has amazing energy.

It definitely has a way of keeping the song in place, the way it was, but taking it out of its element. It's now brought into much more of a dance pop world and it's likely that he heard the original and really wanted to do something a little different with it, without veering too far from the natural tones of that original version.

The song has a bit of an endearing spirit to it and absolutely speaks volumes for the artist, especially as a producer.

A great producer is able to listen to something and hear another thing as it's happening.

I feel like this is what happens with songs like this. Remixes can go a lot of different directions.

This one definitely went in the right direction.

As I said earlier, this is a project with a massive amount of releases, and all of them are able to deliver something slightly different.

This one was listening to you on Bandcamp, and when you visit that page, you'll see 42 releases in total.

I think dipping into some of these tracks is a great idea.

I'm sure you can hear all of these on Spotify as well, but for me, Bandcamp was one of the best ways to go through the catalog.

If you go to the website, you'll be able to find this amazing product called Fanto Tapes Series, which is a beautifully designed drive containing different releases, separated into style and genre.

You can also find original photography, artwork, and loads more.

This whole thing is uber-creative, and when you step into this world, the world of Fantomacs, there's almost no end to it.

So check the track out, and also listen to some of these other songs, visit the site, and get immersed in this world.

It's honestly pretty fun.