Chanpan – “air ride” / “❥attack”

New York-based trio Chanpan are cooking up some crazy things. As I’m writing this from New York City, I’ve seen their promotional material flash across my socials as the right targeted ads do. If you come across the right walls (which I haven’t), you might’ve also come across their recent off-the-wall marketing campaign where they’re “looking for a third” out here in Brooklyn. Pretty wild stuff.

There’s a good reason that the trio — vocalist Grace Dumdaw and instrumentalists-slash-identical twins Lance and Matthew Tran — are getting some local buzz. Thus far, the first two songs they’ve released, the 00’s-club kissed “Jungle” and the horribly titled “ooweeooweeoo” (great song though) have gathered quite a bit of attention online. Together with an already strong visual language and the right amount of cool-headed mischeviousness, the trio seem like they’re ready for the big time. On their recent singles “air ride” and “❥attack,” that’s exactly what they’re setting themselves up for.

“air ride,” which is produced by Frankie Scoca (NewJeans, Erika de Casier), is structured around the reminiscent YouTube vlog structure of the early 2010s (“Um, hi guys / I just wanted to say a few words / It should be pretty quick and painless / Yeah”) before it breaks down into some pretty depressing musings. Fueled by some twinkling beats and a heavily familiar drum break, “air ride” takes some of the best from 90s-00’s R&B and retools it for the depressing digital era. A lot of the extra bells and whistles (see if you can catch all the times there’s an ad-lib here, like the stray “Shut up!”) round out the song too, making it feel a lot more chaotic.

On the other hand, on the extremely anti-SEO track “❥attack,” (this seems to be the trend with them, see: “ooweeooweeoo”), Chanpan tap into those familiar sounds once again — but this time producer Bird Language (Hojean) steers the ship into more familiar territory. Though it’s picking from the same soundscape techniques that the group is known for, “❥attack” feels alive, chugging along with the choppy beats and pulsing kicks. Dumdaw retains that cool demeanor that floats throughout the song, calmly breaking down a crush with an exacting iciness.

If you’re a fan of the recent 00’s resurgence that’s making its way through R&B-tinged pop songs at the moment, Chanpan absolutely delivers. Maybe the third they’re looking for is you?

Header photo by Esther Kim.

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