Having already worked together on Big Boi's 2012 album Vicious Lies & Dangerous Rumours, Big Grams is a side project from the OutKast MC and the indie electronic duo Phantogram (Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter) that eases into existence with this interesting, and busy, seven-song EP. Five vibrant, genre-jumping numbers from the core group appear before Run the Jewels join for "Born to Shine," where Goldfrapp are reimagined as a strip-club house band with provocative lyrics like "I'm about to splash her with this Billy Ocean/Watch her rub it on her face, I call it Johnson's baby lotion." Skrillex then turns the crew into trap stars with "Drum Machine," a number that falls somewhere between "Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)" and a whole Major Lazer album reduced down to one song. The group's solo numbers are just as exciting, with the swelling "Goldmine Junkie" coming off as the next "Unfinished Sympathy" while "Fell in the Sun" tells the story of Icarus with some extra "D" from Big Boi. The MC's copious sex talk makes Phantogram seem like Catherine Deneuve and Bowie in The Hunger, a stoic and sexy duo who let others to do the "dirty work," and just like those vampires, this EP dazzles and then disappears before the sun comes up, leaving listeners with the feelings of both "wow" and "what happened?"
© David Jeffries /TiVo