{"id":84693,"date":"2019-07-04T12:00:40","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T11:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?p=84693"},"modified":"2023-02-24T14:49:10","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24T14:49:10","slug":"review-phoxjaw-playground-for-sad-adults-ep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-phoxjaw-playground-for-sad-adults-ep\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Phoxjaw &#8211; A Playground For Sad Adults EP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-84695\" src=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Phoxjaw-Playgroud-EP-compressor-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Phoxjaw-Playgroud-EP-compressor-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Phoxjaw-Playgroud-EP-compressor-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Phoxjaw-Playgroud-EP-compressor-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Phoxjaw-Playgroud-EP-compressor-1000x1000.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Phoxjaw-Playgroud-EP-compressor-465x465.jpg 465w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Phoxjaw-Playgroud-EP-compressor-500x500.jpg 500w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Phoxjaw-Playgroud-EP-compressor-600x600.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Bristol\u2019s <strong>Phoxjaw<\/strong> hit it hard last year. Creating a buzz with their devasting live shows and unleashing \u2018<em>Goodbye Dinosaur<\/em>\u2019. With its blend of dark atmospheric post-hardcore, the EP caught the attention of Hassle Records. Hardly surprising then, the follow-up, \u2018<i>A<\/i>\u00a0<em>Playground For Sad Adults<\/em>\u2019 is in many ways a more confident reprise of their debut. That\u2019s no bad thing.<\/p>\n<p>The EP\u2019s title couldn\u2019t be more fitting. Almost everywhere you\u2019ll hear arpeggios that bring to mind eerie playrooms in Victorian houses. It\u2019s an uncomfortable atmosphere that fits perfectly with their love of angular riffs and Danny Garland\u2019s varied, yet unsettling vocals. At its most focused, it recalls Pulled Apart By Horses with its rock, grunge, and hardcore elements. Especially on \u2018<em>Monday Man<\/em>\u2019 with its huge driving guitar parts.<\/p>\n<p>The band\u2019s real strength is their ability to cook up a witches\u2019 brew of dark tantrums and mood swings without losing focus. In fact, the songs on the EP\u2019s first half follow a similar template. Ladling on riffs while trying to slip the rug from under you with weird asides, only for the riff to come back harder and heavier. \u2018<em>Melt, You\u2019re The Face Of Wax\u2019<\/em> showcases this perfectly. Its eerie jack-in-the-box verses work a treat. Similarly, \u2018<em>Whale, Whale, Whale<\/em>\u2019 is glorious noisy but ends up digging itself a momentum-sapping hole. While it works here, it could easily sink a longer-form record.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Phoxjaw - Melt, You&#039;re A Face Of Wax (Official Video)\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iqR4Lv2xhoU?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The EP\u2019s latter half is far more challenging. The songs are more thoughtful and if anything, weirder. Everything about \u2018<em>The Curse Of The Button Man<\/em>\u2019 is gleefully off-kilter like a nightmarish merry-go-round. \u2018<em>Bodiesinthewalls<\/em>\u2019 also meanders along, lurching from sound to sound while Garland makes rhymes about random objects. It\u2019s great but is very much the band doing its own thing, completely justifying comparisons to Cave In.<\/p>\n<p>Consolidating what came before, \u2018<i>A<\/i>\u00a0<em>Playground For Sad Adults<\/em>\u2019 squeezes more dark magic out of Phoxjaw\u2019s sound. Making for an unsettling, moodier EP, which will no doubt thrive in the live arena.<\/p>\n<p>4\/5<\/p>\n<p>\u2018<i>A<\/i>\u00a0<em>Playground For Sad Adults<\/em>\u2019 by <strong>Phoxjaw<\/strong> is released on 5th July on <strong>Hassle Records<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Phoxjaw<\/strong> links: \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/phoxjawofficial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/phoxjaw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/phoxjaw\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/phoxjaw.bandcamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Ian Kenworthy (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WhisperingSand\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@WhisperingSand<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;\u2018Playground For Sad Adults\u2019 squeezes more dark magic out of Phoxjaw\u2019s sound&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":84695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2269],"tags":[15783,240,16160,17255],"class_list":["post-84693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ep-review","tag-ep-reviews","tag-hassle-records","tag-phoxjaw","tag-playground-for-sad-adults"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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