Phobophobes - Miniature World (2018)

Nothing is stable, everything is usually on the brink of collapse, yet Phobophobes have dragged their weird and wonderful dark psychedelic rock’n’roll into the light of “Miniature World”, their debut album.

The band currently consists of frontman Jamie Bardolph Taylor, keyboardist Chris Olivares Chandler, drummer Dan Lyons, guitarist Christo McCracken, guitarist Jack Fussey and bassist Bede Trillo. Their influences are widespread - and atypical - with the music closer to the spirit of apocalyptic garage rock than it is to consumer pop. Think Wall of Voodoo, Joe Meek and Leonard Cohen via Monty Python and The Magic Roundabout. Jamie and Chris, both south Londoners, founded the band in 2013. The intervening years have played out anything but smoothly: they’ve been through two managers, four producers, five studios and eleven band members. And last year brought with it tragedy. George Bedford Russell, who played guitar, died of a heroin overdose. “He was a beautiful person, and a close friend,” says Jamie. “He suffered from severe depression and used to self-medicate with the wrong kinds of drugs. And his prescription drugs alone didn’t provide any kind of long-term solution.” For Elliot Nash, a bassist and one of George’s closest friends, staying in Phobophobes proved too difficult and he dropped out. After some time off, however, the rest of the band decided to go on.