London-based artist Seamus O'Dwyer returns with Phraen's second album, After. Can you hear it? It follows up the debut record It's Routine, leaning into introspection and uncertainty through a clean, spacious mix. I was pulled in by the steady, repetitive groove on the track "Dover".
The production feels intentional, built over six months in Ableton home studios using remote musicians sourced online. It works. Pushing backing sounds through distorted amplifiers casts a dark tone that hangs in the background. The low-register, spoken-melodic vocal delivery stays flat and detached, creating an intimate calm against the reverb and delay effects. Pure isolation.
I'm more interested in the creative process than in trying to make the music fit a particular idea of what I normally do.
That mindset shapes every alternative rock and shoegaze texture across the project. You just sit inside the static, watching the delay trail off into nothing.
