Play What's Not There＜Gold Vinyl＞

L.A. musician Kosta Galanopoulos named his solo project, PWNT, after the Miles Davis credo "Play whats not there," the title he bestows to his sophomore album. While the debuts oddball retro-pop combined 60s-infused psych-pop with lo-fi synth pop, jazzy lounge music, and more, Play Whats Not There leans into a more authentic 60s and 70s vibe with its greater emphasis on acoustic instruments such as acoustic guitar, woodwinds, and piano. Thats not to say the second album is exactly refined; recorded with David Davis (Frank Ocean, the War on Drugs), its still a trippy, style-fusing sonic adventure, this time spanning vintage baroque pop, hazy folk-rock, and, on "Goodbye Forever," even a version of disco. That song pounds out a delay-heavy rhythm on piano before lighting things up with a funky bassline and fat snare tone under Galanopoulos slinky falsetto. It ends with a funk guitar battle. More typical of the record, though, are warmer entries like the hazy, Laurel Canyon-esque "From Me to You" (replete with harpsichord and a fever-dream sax solo), the like-minded "Clouds" (instead with chimes, a sunshine-pop choir, and what sounds like a Cold War-era spaceship motor), the soul-injected "Never So Bad," and album highlight "Lonely," a hooky psych-pop ditty in the tradition of John Lennon and Foxygen. Landing closer to outlier status on the albums colorful spectrum is "After Four," an earnest outing featuring vocals by LaCore that manages to combine Henry Mancini, Prefab Sprout, and an evocative 70s soft rock. Never entirely earnest, though, to end the record, PWNT follows "Summer Rain" with a "Clouds" reprise, whose ramped-up, four-on-the-floor-accompanied Beatles psychedelia and repeated "Floating on a cloudy day" take the album out on a festival high. ~ Marcy Donelson