Terry Phao

Terry Phao emerged in 2014 – exactly when “new ukrainian wave” had begun. At first, they were almost lost among the large number of talented musicians, remaining clearly underrated despite their music contributed much to the current zeitgeist.

Formally being a collective, in fact Terry Phao can be considered an one-man-band, as the founder Taras (Terry) is the only permanent member and the core of the group, acting as the songwriter, vocalist, keyboard & guitar player. Curiously, now he is the most rapid-changing Ukrainian indie artist, demonstrating a constant moving forward and style development.

“TP” is often presented as a Kyiv outfit, but what’s less well-known is that Terry was born in a small Galician town Chervonograd, that turns him into a part of so-called “Provincial Revolution”, mentioned above. In 2017 the project published two EPs: the first one, “Не кажи” (“Don’t say”), which we would also recommend, was a nice new romantic piece in the best tradition of legendary West Ukrainian synth pop trio “Скрябін” (“Skryabin”), but of course more indie-arranged.

The second outing, “Запах Моря”, is a completely different story. Unexpected electronic surfpop and post-punk elements, Ukrainian continuation (and even further development) of what Jonny Pierce and Jacob Graham once did, makes it head and shoulders above the previous Terry Phao’s work. The only thing that does not allow these guys to become “the next Drums” is a lack of a proper sound producing.

The opening theme “Не бачити,не чути” is an unique successful symbiosis of electronic indie and a slide guitar (!), which is commonly used in blues or classic/progressive rock and has nothing to do with modern lo-fi/slacker generation. Have you ever heard something like this? We haven’t. Layered, polyphonic backing vocals in all three tracks have proven to be a great addition – Terry has again shown himself as a gifted melodist.

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Stream “Запах Моря” on Bandcamp.

Terry Phao on Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

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