Bad With Phones, the enigmatic artist who spans genres with his shroomified blend of weirdo pop, rap, spoken word, R&B and indie-electro, makes a return following a two year hiatus to release “Don’t Talk To Me” on tastemaker label Don’t Sleep.
“Don’t Talk To Me” is tweaked out indie-pop-meets-electro-rap, propelled by scratchy post-punk guitars. It is an incredibly infectious psychedelic rap sermon of “blah blah blah”, yearning to escape from a trahere of himself performing the track, unapproachable yet alluring, trapped in that party.
Bad With Phones, aka Manny a vocalist, guitarist and frontman from Deptford, is back and comes complete with a new character in pink wig and shades, evolving from his Marinade mixtape era and underground hits “ON1″ (with over 1.6million streams), “Refrigerator” and “Monica”, to announce the release of his debut album CRASH out July 12.
CRASH is a collection of 10 epic songs that are Manny’s journey made into art, a narrative arc of highs, lows and ultimate redemption in what he describes as “my sonic therapy session”.
The album is low key hypnagogic and soaked in bliss and damage, with standout tracks like “DennisRodman”, a warm-up track which dropped in mid February, “Devils”, “drive.”, “Emmanuelle” and the exhilarating “TICKET”.
CRASH is packed with intimate anthems, gnarly love songs and comedown soothers for the day after a mangled night and to quote an album lyric will “come Triple XL with the vibes”.
Bad With Phones’ name was born out of Manny’s 6 month phone-free social experiment. Following the debut EP Bang Bang Chicken in 2018, he was hailed as one to watch in 2021 on the release of his mixtape Marinade.
Another few singles and an EP Living & Surfing & Remixing followed in 2022, but a near death experience explains the two year hiatus. The CRASH album cover features a hired jeep, destroyed, on a volcanic landscape.
Frazzled and needing a break after releasing music and signing to Don’t Sleep, instead of seeing family in Togo, Manny flew to Lanzarote with a girlfriend. But once on the island, there was a devastating car crash, from which they both miraculously emerged unscathed.
Manny says “I was in a weird space, doubting if I could deliver an album. It was really a hasty decision to go away. I should’ve stayed home doing my work, figuring out how I’m gonna do the music. It gave me the answer in a weird, dramatic way.
I felt like a stunt man for life. It gave me a new drive and sense of purpose and allowed me to see where I needed to be and what I need to prioritize. The single is about those parties you end up stuck at for too long, having aimless conversations.
CRASH is a journey, each song plays a part in the buildup, crash and recovery. It’s like my sonic therapy session, I’m glad to get it out of my head and I hope people can relate.”
Brixton label Don’t Sleep is celebrating its 5th anniversary with the label’s first album releases this year. Bad With Phones’ album CRASH embodies how the label family works and what they care about – artists who expand the culture and push it forward.
