Phoniks is a producer from Portland, Maine, who has been releasing music for the last ten years. While he’s probably best known for his collaborations with other Don’t Sleep artists such as Awon and Anti-Lilly, Phoniks has been releasing solo projects along the way this whole time. His most recent solo project came in 2020, when he dropped The Quarantine Tape. Now he’s back with a new solo album, Dreams.

If you’ve been following Phoniks’ career, Dreams won’t really surprise you, because he’s just leaning into what he does best – delivering laid back, jazzy, East Coast boom bap beats. Of course, if that’s the type of music you like to make, and you can deliver it at a high level, why fix what ain’t broke? Phoniks has been doing this long enough to understand all of the nuance that goes into a project like this, and so while his beats can all be put under this big general umbrella, there is a lot of variety across the tracks of this album, and the individual tracks are developed enough to take you on an emotional and musical journey. This means that instead of just falling back into one groove and just zoning out while the rest of the album plays, there’s a lot different sonic textures that will keep you engaged as a listener as your head is bobbing and your toes are tapping to Phoniks’ grooves. Phoniks also shows a really gentle touch as a producer, as he really coaxes the most out of his samples and flips them in really interesting ways that will again have you listening closely each time through, appreciating all of the little things that Phoniks does to make a project like this work.

Phoniks isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel with Dreams, he’s just doing what he does best, and he’s delivering at a high level. If you want beautiful, soulful, jazzy, East Coast boom bap, Phoniks has got you, and he’s giving you a tour of how good an instrumental project like this can be when it’s done right.