THE ORIGINAL SIN EZINE
"Already more than ten years is Eric Shans composing electronic music under the name of Phenotract. What once started as a more industrial act has been developed into something more new wave-like, and this evolution can be perfectly heard on Eric’s latest baby “Shifting”. Everything on here has been done by Eric himself and you could say that his work is like the one from a modern troubadour if onlythe instrument he has chosen is the synthesizer, which leads to modern synthpop that embraces the 80’s with love, especially Kraftwerk. But, and that graces artists like Eric, this artist from Brooklyn has no problem admitting who his influences are. Never you hear him saying that he’s coming up with the latest masterpiece or that he does something which has never been done before, everything is presented in a humble way and it’s done in a way in where you can smell the love of music….a love that gave Eric the ability to come up with songs that are worth being remembered. And if it might sound like Kraftwerk or DAF…you know, there are people who are falling for Paul Mc Cartney and you have those who are in love with what Frank Tovey once did. Beautiful synthsounds that has echoes from Depeche Mode (of course) or the better techno, and if you add to that the beautiful vocals from Niabi Caldwell you’ll have something that we can describe as a wonderful synthpopalbum. Recommended."
CHAIN DLK (for "Shifting")
"Three years from the previous "Transient messages" album, Phenotract is back with a new one titled SHIFTING. The new CD brings us ten new songs that dismiss the dance influences to embrace a blend of electronic, new wave and pop music with ethereal atmospheres. The thing that is popping up immediately on SHIFTING are the upfront vocals and the reverb layer that seems to permeate the whole sound. The whole album sounds more intimate but there are also upbeat songs like "Separate places" or "Full circle again" to spice up the atmosphere. Helped by Katharine Heller, Niabi Caldwell, Anaben (from the band By Night With Spear) on vocals and by guitarist Gabriel Dorosz, Eric duets with his guests giving to the whole album a touch of dreamy synthpop where the ambience shift from dark to melancholic. At the moment I think to prefer their old style but if you like intimate electronic wave mid tempos with personal lyrics check SHIFTING. On the band's website you can listen to each track."
WRAPPED IN WIRE"All of the songs here are very well crafted with meticulous sound layering, texturing and clean production. There are elements of EBM, techno, trance and synth-pop. It's futuristic technological electro music with sci-fi sounds, heavy beats, airy melodies and altered vocals.....With club beats and an experimental sensibility,this Phenotract "Within A Second" album is something to check out"
CHAIN DLK"..the overall tightness of his music shows real talent that will likely make some serious advancements .. Phenotract has an otherworldly and dreamy quality to it's sound while maintaining the energy required for good dance music."
"Phenotract's second full length album TRANSIENT MESSAGES brings to the attention of electronic music lovers eleven tracks which are deeply influenced by modern synthpop, techno, ambient as well as 80's electro"
WETWORKSEZINE"Within A Second" is a solid album .. I would definitely recommend this album to those that like mid tempo Electro that is well programmed and produced. "
SIDE LINE"Within a second” is an interesting debut, revealing a modern approach of electronic music. Production wise, I’m getting wild of the vocal production. The vocals are like a whispering ghost in a sensual mood and the electronic structures are based on EBM influences while recovered with a flavor of pop.There’s definitely a lot to experience on this debut, which is auspicious for the coming chapter of Phenotract!"
"Phenotract Transient Messages (cd Souvenir Records) More or less 3 years after the debut-cd “Within A Second” (released on the now defunct Tinman Records) the New York based Phenotract strikes back with a new and refreshing release. A female vocalist joined the project, but more than a change in the line-up, the sound has considerably evolved. “Transient Messages” is a quite minimal sounding release of low tempo rhythms and techno-space electronics. I really like the global sphere running through the songs, which sounds like coming from another galaxy. The production of the vocals is also quite space like, which totally fits to the global sound. This album sounds as a relief in the electronic underground too often dominated by dark electronic emulations. The sound of Phenotract is refined, delicate, but damned efficient! Songs like “Connections Missed”, “A Million Colors” and especially “Heightened” are real great pieces of music. This is a band to discover!"
MORBID OUTLOOK"...Tracks that hit the solar plexus with a dreamy, droning melody..."
"Brooklyn-based like Digital Geist, Phenotract also consists largely of the efforts of one person. In this case it is Eric Shans; his sometime collaborator being female vocalist Niabi Caldwell. In the current release, we find Eric’s tradition of airy instrumental intro giving forth to songs constructed of many layers over drum and bass, with the textures of the intro weaving into the mix in various ways. As usual, the work is very well crafted with dreamy melodies, novel twists where you don’t expect them, thematic inversions and mutations carrying over from track to track... and, of course, you can dance to it."
GRAVE CONCERNS EZINE"Bound together by themes of ice, snow, and altitude, it cuts through you like a chill windfrom the north, with rhythms and synth sweeps geared as much towards cool introspection as the physicality of the dance floor. ... Shans has put out a wonderful disc, straddling the line between aggression and contemplation and with a style that's already recognizable on his first release."
"Eric Shans is Phenotract, and his second LP “Transient Messages” features the dreamy and fluid vocals of Niabi Caldwell. The LP is pure electronic excitement, juiced up beautifully with Eric’s echoey and handsome voice that seems to liquefy into a streaming pool of gleaming prismatic electronic pulses, synth-pop heavenly awakenings, and sweat-slamming techno-heavy beats---like two-thousand treadmills in perfect unity. Phenotract feeds your brain with the fantastic, the futuristic, and the extraordinary. A bunch of those favorites for me are, “Connections Missed”, “In Another Life”, “A Million Colors”, “Heightened”, “At The Sign” and “Smoothflow”. Phenotract’s LP “Transient Messages” is 11-tracks drenched in all that is blisteringly good in the worlds where electronica, synth-pop, and techno bring the uniqueness of each style of music to the front of the line, and through the merging of those styles, create a spectacular birth of sounds."
RE:GEN MAGAZINE (ONLINE).."..shows the promise of someone who could be a great new talent in American electro"