The nerdy tricksters of Dopapod had (almost) everyone fooled last week when the band released Aiboh, the band’s first studio album that wasn’t a palindrome. Those big brains from the Berklee College of Music had the last laugh on Thursday, however, when Dopapod released a second album Phobia which—when combined with the previous week’s release—forms the diptych “Aibohphobia,” the fear of palindromes and also cruelly itself a palindrome.
As was the case with Aiboh, many of the songs on Phobia came from Dopapod’s show under the name bOOb at Nectar’s on February 8th, 2023. Phobia‘s “Wizzy”, “Man or Machine”, and “Two Somebodies” all debuted at the Burlington, VT hotspot. Even though these songs were first introduced to the world by bOOb—which also features Rob Compa, Chuck Jones, Eli Winderman, and Neal “Fro” Evans—they all sound like Dopapod classics and have helped create one of the band’s best studio efforts in years.
The album opens with “Let It All Out”, which falls somewhere between King Crimson and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard on the stylistics spectrum. D-pod’s headbanging habits are well represented on “Two Somebodies” which is reminiscent of Redivider (2012) classic “Stada” with just a bit of David Gilmour‘s playing on “Young Lust” added for good measure. As guitarist Compa explained in a social media video, the inspiration actually came from a different classic rock band. One evening, Rob, his wife, and Twiddle drummer Adrian Tramontano were listening to Queen‘s A Night At The Opera and the vinyl record kept skipping, causing a glitchy effect that sounded a lot like the central guitar riff on “Somebodies”.
All of the other musical eccentricities that make up Dopapod are found on Phobia, like the campy Charlie Brown-esque piano bop on “Wizzy”. Eli Winderman’s bouncy pump-up synths bring some unironic ’00s pop banger nostalgia on “Man or Machine” and Dopapod finds a way to write a prog rock epic about cellular structure on “Mitochondria”. It all oozes classic Dopapod which bridges the gap between head-banging prog, spaced-out acid jazz, infectious funk, and nerd culture—whether you’re looking backward at what’s been said or ahead to what the band is spelling out for the future.
Stream both Aiboh and Phobia from Dopapod below and pre-order the two-LP vinyl package featuring both albums together with special custom artwork. The band returns to the road on May 16th for a show in Belle Vernon, PA, kicking off a spring and summer tour. Find tickets and a full list of tour dates on Dopapod’s website.
Dopapod – Aiboh
Dopapod – Phobia
The post Dopapod Completes Double Album Palindrome Diptych With ‘Phobia’ [Stream] appeared first on L4LM.
