- Teengirl Fantasy seem to be set on deconstructing their music: the Thermal EP is four glossy, retro-digital productions that fall apart at the seams. On opener "Cavescape," drums sputter in grooveless bursts and any semblance of melody is either insubstantial or directionless. "7:30 AM," the other instrumental track, has a more cohesive idea, thanks to steady rolls of percussion that give the loose synthscapes and twittering FX some gravitational pull to swirl around. The song's title is likely a reference to Teengirl's captivating debut LP, 7AM, and the music uses dreamy, warm-weather house sounds in much the same way as that record did.
Thermal's two vocal cuts contrast similarly. "Lung" is spacious and impressionistic, while "U Touch Me" is more straightforward, with its sultry R&B-isms. Regardless of form, Teengirl Fantasy sound purposeful when writing songs for vocalists, just as they did on "EFX," the Kelela-featuring highlight from 2012's Tracer. The problem here is that singers LAFAWNDAH and Hoody make for conspicuous Kelela stand-ins, and fail to forge their own identities from the airy coo of her voice—or each other's, for that matter. Logan Takahashi's and Nicholas Weiss' latest record arrives almost a full year after the solid Nun EP reminded us why they were interesting in the first place, but they seem to have spent the interim picking apart their past catalog instead of continuing to develop its good ideas.
Tracklist01. Cavescape
02. Lung feat. Lafawndah
03. 7:30 AM
04. U Touch Me feat. Hoody