New Music

PWNT releases new album ‘Play What’s Not There’ this Friday 7/28

  • July 24, 2023
  • 3 min read
  • 205 Views
PWNT releases new album ‘Play What’s Not There’ this Friday 7/28

PWNT, all depends on you, psychedelic rock, psychedelia, indie rock, alternative rock,

PWNT entered the indie music scene with his debut LP, “Days in the Summer” in 2021. Over the past two years he has been collecting credits with amazing acts like Hether, LP, Brijean, and more while making his best work yet as an artist.

Notable Players/Collaborators
Featured Musicians/Personnel – Will Fox, LaCore, Steven Frieder (Woodwinds), Jacob Peter (Guitar), David Davis Co-Producer/Mix Engineer (Credited on work with Miguel, Frank Ocean, War on Drugs)

PWNT is marked first by its warmth. The name, an abbreviation of Miles Davis’ ideology “Play What’s Not There,” quickly gives away the loving expression of mastermind Kosta Galanopolous’ various influences that reveal themselves throughout 2021’s aptly-named Days In The Summer and 2022’s Don’t Look In The Mirror and Goodbye Forever. However, the warmth these works express prevails just as much through its quintessential southern California sound as it does through PWNT’s devotion to deftly syncopated percussion paired with a dedication to influence from all forms and eras of off-kilter pop music. With two years spent understanding himself as PWNT, Galanopolous returns with Play What’s Not There, released July 28th.

With Play What’s Not There, PWNT created another statement of intention that feels less geared toward shows of drum and stylistic prowess, with which PWNT is clearly endowed, and more toward songwriting and texture. The drums are even more dry, and acoustic guitar as a layering instrument has taken the place of keyboard and synth. Thankfully though, PWNT’s love of horns remains. Resultantly, the songs sound older, both in terms of sonics and maturity. The respective descriptions of a “dreamy, hazy sound that feels perfectly aimed for…scorching summer afternoons” created for “transporting listeners onto an inflatable flamingo in a Californian pool” from ComplexUK and Dork Magazine certainly capture the peership that any listener could make between PWNT’s Days In The Summer and Toro y Moi’s June 2009 and What For? and Tame Impala’s Lonerism, but those comparisons simply don’t apply as readily for Play What’s Not There.

With previous releases, there are a number of moments of deceptive minimalism laying in a mirage of simplicity created by a striking amount of layers and instrumentation. With Play What’s Not There, PWNT is less interested in that subtlety. Each song contains multitudes. Even a ballad like After Four (featuring LaCore), arguably the song on the album with the simplest arrangement, is still littered with scattered sounds, seasoning the baseline composition. It’s all the moving pieces that have been reigned in with help from David Davis (Miguel, Frank Ocean, War on Drugs) that bring a timelessness to songs like All Depends On You, featuring the honey-voiced Will Fox, Lonely, and Never So Bad.

Before and during PWNT’s origins, Kosta Galanopolous, a New School trained jazz drummer turned songwriter, session player, and producer for artists like Hether, Luke Temple, Brijean, and Adam Lambert, found himself turning his 2020 quarantine isolation into motivation to create on his own terms. While Days In The Summer is a representation of Galanopolous’ longing to once more experience the outside world, Play What’s Not There is an expression of a more established creative self. It’s PWNT’s manifestation of a desire to step from behind the scenes with long-cultivated talents and knowledge. Play What’s Not There was written, composed, and recorded entirely from Galanopolous’ Long Beach home studio, and will be released on Nashville’s Acrophase Records.

 

Share Button
About Author

Chris Ryan

Chris Ryan is an accomplished promoter, event planner, producer, activist, counselor, poet and blogger. Within the course of two and a half years Chris Ryan has worked with some of NYC's most established promoters/event planners, been named 2007′s GaySocialite of the year, granted a promoter of the year award from NYC's most famous gay establishment, Splash. He's worked in some of NYC's top venues including; Avalon, Capitale, Cipriani, Cielo, Pacha, Element, Le Poisson Rouge, XL, G Lounge, Plumm, Hilton Hotel, Indigo Hotel, Spirit, Myst/Quo, Splash, The Ritz, Vlada, Roseland Ballroom, Heaven, etc. In 2008, Chris Ryan has begun to unveil some of the most innovative & unique parties New York City has ever seen. The Fusion events "fuse" together all disciplines of art into an event that remains diverse yet cohesive at the same time. ChrisRyanNYC.com won best gay promotions website from NYC Event Patrons in 2008 & he was granted an award from the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, Gov. Patterson & Michelle Clunie (QAF) saluting him for his hard work in nightlife. Chris Ryan has also begun working with many renown companies, including; doctors, lawyers, physicians, modeling agencies & more. Chris Ryan has been responsible for wide-scale promotions for all these companies & generating tremendous business. Chris Ryan has even started to become National with events taking place in LA & Miami this year. In May of 2009 Chris Ryan received the very prestigious honor of being named a "40 Under 40″ Gays in America by the Advocate Magazine. He also created three successful parties that generated over 1,500 patrons each. In January of 2010 Chris Ryan was featured as one of the top promoters to look out for in Noize Magazine Chris Ryan joined forces with legendary promoter/event producer, Lee Chappell and created one of the most talked about events of all 2010, Desire @ Capitale. Chris Ryan and Lee featured one of the most outstanding artists NYC has ever seen, "Oh Land." Her performance coupled with an exquisite and unforgettable set design added to this extravagant event that held over 1,000 patrons in one of NYC's most successful PRIDE events! Chris Ryan then joined forces with legendary Pacha promoter, Rob Fernandez in addition to Jake Resnicow and Tommy Marinelli to bring one of the largest and most successful parties worldwide to NYC, MATINEE. The event on Governor's Island saw over 2,000+ attendees and one of the most ambitious productions ever. In 2011 Chris Ryan started Emerge Music Promotions with business partner Darren Melchiorre. Emerge Music promotions began signing artists with plans to develop and market the artists to the community at large. Emerge Music promotions has big events planned for 2012 and 2013. Chris Ryan debuted the IMAGE events which took place on top of two of NYC's most beautiful rooftop venues, Rare View and Indigo Hotel. The events were blogged everywhere and featured the fashion designs of several clothing designers, artists and photographers. Chris Ryan felt that fashion and art should be displayed at every event and attracted the likes of Malan Breton, Calvin Klein and even Katy Perry. Chris Ryan began an extremely successful event which incorporated the concept of a house party into a nightclub atmosphere. The event Twist'D at G Lounge has been one of the most talked about events in NYC and allows it's audience to play nearly-naked Twister, beer pong, flip cup & more with other attendees. Chris Ryan was granted an excellence in volunteering award from AVP (Anti-Violence Project) for all his efforts in supporting the organization. 2013 has a very promising landscape on the horizon and Chris Ryan is complacent in saying "you haven't seen anything yet!"

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.