The wall of sound that rushes right over you when you hit play on the standout single, Out of Time, from the three-track single, Fade, affirms that Phil Raskin has earned a place among the likes of Phil Spector, Tom Dowd, and George Martin in the audio engineer hall of fame.
The clarity, depth, and all-consuming intensity within the synthesis of pop, rock and soul make the production a phenomenon in its own right – not that the immensity of talent nestled within the performance can be understated. With guitar riffs that paralyse with their overdriven power, organ keys that transcend enough to escape material reality, and the 70s pop-rock piano melodies that intensify the emotion within Jojo Guo’s vocals and wash away the decades, Out of Time is a timelessly indomitable multisensory experience that is by far one of the most Grammy-worthy pieces I’ve heard in the past decade.
To hone his talent, the multinational engineer studied Music Production & Engineering, Film Scoring and Audio Post-Production at Berklee before relocating to LA where he became an integral part of Igloo Music Studios, working on projects for Netflix and Disney. Further into his career, he recorded a full choir session for the 2023 Super Bowl Pre-Show and was put in charge of Spatial Quality Control of Dolby Atmos deliverables for Camel City Sound. At this stage, if he had any more feathers in his cap, he’d need an aviary to contain them.
Stream Out of Time on Spotify or purchase the single via Apple Music.
Review by Amelia Vandergast