What: Phlank album release show
When: Saturday, Sept. 26; 8 p.m.-2 a.m. (Phlank will perform at 11 p.m.)
Where: Be Here Now, 505 N. Dill St.
Colin Ledbetter, also known by his artist name Phlank, is a junior computer science major who began his music career with a Google search on how to produce music.
The title of his new album, “Substratium,” refers to the pocket of life sustained below the atmospheric layer. One idea Phlank wanted to symbolize through the music is symbiosis: the fact that everyone on Earth is working together, even unknowingly, in order to survive.
The album's sound is written in a style of music referred to as minimal. He uses as few instruments as possible to create something that is "greater than the sum of its parts.”
This simplicity, Phlank said, leads each listener to interpret the music differently than the way someone else would. His goal for the album was to have a full, balanced sound that lends to the idea of everything working together.
If there was one thing for a listener to take away from the album, it would be to "remember where you've been," Phlank said. "The point of living is to be living and to experience it."
This idea inspired Phlank throughout the album-making process.
"The challenge is finding new ways of doing and finding things that made you happy at one point," he said. "It goes back to the idea, 'Do you want to go back or do you want to stay here?'"
Phlank used a sound bite from the movie "Gravity,” sampling a scene in which Sandra Bullock's character is trapped in space, to represent this idea.
Phlank's belief in symbiosis also shows in the help he received from others who are “in the scene.”
Several of the DJs with whom he performs on the online dubstep forum ClouwdNine were involved in the making of the album. One of Phlank's songs, "Into the Fray," was remixed by Kyle Reese, known online as Resykle.
"Every element [in Phlank's music] has a time and a place," Reese said. "Nothing is superfluous or random, but all the elements work together to create a unique rhythm."
Phlank will have 100 physical copies for sale at the show and at phlank.bandcamp.com. A percentage of profits will go to ClouwdNine, and the rest toward the Electronic Dance Music Club, of which he is president.
Indianapolis artists Willie Grimez and Indigo Child will also perform at the show.
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