Artist
Pocahaunted
Eagle Rock, United States • 2005 – 2010
Pocahaunted is a music group from Eagle Rock, United States, active 2005–2010. Their discography on Gatefold includes 5 records.
5
Albums tracked
5
In collections
2005
Since
Biography
Pocahaunted (often shortened by the band to P-haunt) was a psychedelic pop duo formed in 2005 in Los Angeles, CA, by Amanda Brown and Bethany Cosentino (subsequently in the duo Best Coast). The duo disbanded in August 2010. The self-proclaimed "Olsen twins of blissed out drone" from Eagle Rock, California, United States was envisioned by musicians Amanda Brown and Bethany Cosentino. Debuting in 2006 with cassettes Moccasinging and What the Spirit Tells Me
The Arc of Pocahaunted
The pivots — what forced Pocahaunted to reinvent.
The Two-Piece Tape Flood
Between 2006 and 2008, the band was a prolific noise factory centered on the vocal interplay between Brown and Cosentino. They dropped dozens of CDRs and cassettes that relied on heavy reverb and loops to mask a lack of traditional instrumentation. This era is defined by a complete disregard for fidelity, where the recording medium—hissing tape and clipping mics—became as much a part of the sound as the chanting. It was the peak of the Los Angeles 'free-folk' explosion, and they were the poster children for that specific brand of lo-fi mystery.
The Not Not Fun Dub Expansion
The pivot came when the group expanded to include Britt Brown and leaned hard into the rhythmic influences of the Not Not Fun label's evolving aesthetic. Records like 'Passage' and 'Make It Real' swapped the aimless vocal drones for actual basslines and a percussion-heavy approach that owed more to the Slits than to forest spirits. This was the moment the band stopped being a conceptual art project and started being a touring rock act. The sound got cleaner, the delays got more rhythmic, and they finally admitted they wanted to make people move rather than just stare at the floor.
Influences
- The Slits — Amanda Brown has cited Ari Up’s uninhibited vocal style and the band's 'Typical Girls' era as a direct blueprint for Pocahaunted’s later rhythmic shift. You hear it in the jagged, amateurish funk of 'Make It Real' where the vocals sit high and disconnected from the bassline. They took the post-punk template and stripped it back to its most primitive, echoed-out essentials.
- Christina Carter — As a member of Charalambides and a frequent collaborator on their 2007 split, Carter’s approach to free-form vocal improvisation was the foundational DNA for their early tapes. The long-form, wordless chanting on 'Water-Born' is a direct descendant of Carter’s work. They didn't just share a label; they shared a philosophy that the human voice is just another texture to be buried in the mix.
- Sun Araw — Cameron Stallones was a central figure in the Not Not Fun inner circle and his approach to 'psychedelic dub' was a major catalyst for the band's 2009-2010 sound. You can hear his fingerprints on the guitar processing and the heavy, saturated low-end that defined their final records. It moved them away from the folk-drone world and into a more fried, electronic space.
- Cocteau Twins — In early interviews, the band referenced Elizabeth Fraser’s use of glossolalia as a way to prioritize melody over literal meaning. This is exactly how they approached the 'Moccasinging' era, using the voice as an instrument rather than a vehicle for lyrics. The heavy use of delay pedals to create choral washes was a low-budget tribute to the 4AD sound.
- Alice Coltrane — The band’s fascination with spiritual jazz and ashram recordings is documented in their early aesthetic and 'tribal' branding. The droning, meditative quality of records like 'Journey in Satchidananda' provided the structural logic for their 20-minute improvised jams. They swapped the harp for a delay pedal, but the intent to create a hypnotic, cyclical space remained the same.
Discography
Their records — most-collected first.
Related artists
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