Phantoma Earbook (Unleash the Archers)
Phantoma Earbook (Unleash the Archers)
Phantoma vs. Quora
I was fortunate to get the earbook for Phantoma by Unleash the Archers and here’s some information about it.
After listening to this wonderful album and loving it, I wanted to learn more about its story. I had heard mention of an earbook that had the story of Phantoma on it, along with some other bonus stuff so I went to the web site to order it.
Earbook is a strange term to me, but I guess it fits since you get the music for your ear (on CD and record) and a book to read about it.
Unfortunately I quickly discovered it was sold out. After some more research I found out that only 1000 were made for pre-order and they sold out quickly, even at their $60 price. I did some searching and found a store in Europe that might have had some, but shipping to the US was expensive.
On a lark, I checked eBay and found a “nearly new” Phantoma Earbook for $50 with the “make an offer” button enabled. I offered $40 and it was accepted!
A few days later I received the Earbook and it definitely was in like-new condition. In fact, I could not really tell that it had been read at all. The earbook includes a CD of the Phantoma album itself and another CD of an instrumental version of the album.
The only things I have that can play a CD are my PlayStation 4 and a USB CD drive I have for the computer, which I used to rip the instrumental CD to iTunes. I haven’t bothered to rip the album CD since I already have it with Apple Music.
There is also a record with a couple bonus tracks, but I had no way to play records. However years ago I had gotten my Dad a USB record player so he could convert some of his old 45s to his computer. He still had it in the attic, so I was able to give it a try with the bonus record. The record is a 45 with Tarzan Boy on one side and Ghosts in the Wave, a synth version of Ghosts in the Mist, on the other side.
Using Audacity I was able to listen to the record on my Mac, although I didn’t bother with actually recording it since I had already found versions of the two songs on YouTube that sounded better than what I was able to record myself.
The story of Phantoma is told over 10 chapters (about 16 pages), matching the number of songs. The story itself is fine, but reads somewhat like fan fiction. It does have much more details and more characters than what is in the songs themselves.
The extra details enhance the songs. For example, have you wondered why the 2nd song is called Ph4/NTO-mA? It turns out that the protagonist’s name is short for Phase 4 / Network Tier 0-unit model A, which shortens to Ph4/NTO-mA and is pronounced Phantoma. The name is even relevant to later parts of the story!
One oddity for me is that I felt like the last chapter as it was written does not seem to match the final song, Blood Empress. The story in the book seems to end on a much more positive note than the song does. It almost seems like Blood Empress starts where the story ends.
The Earbook is large and a bit bulky with the dimensions of an LP record. You won’t be casually reading this on a chair.
A section at the end of the book implies that Unleash the Archers created another AI video to tell the 2nd part of the story (the Green & Glass video tells the first part), but so far they have not released it. I realize that UtA got a bit of pushback on that AI video, but I hope they still release the 2nd part.
Overall, I’m really glad I got the earbook (my first). Even if I didn’t really need the CDs or bonus record, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the full story, the bios and the photos.
Thanks for this! I've been digging Phantoma, so I'll have to be on the lookout for a reasonably priced used copy like you found. I wasn't familiar with the term "earbook," although it turns out I think I already own one that I like a lot. Rory Gallagher's Kickback City includes a noir graphic novel along with CD's containing both an audio version of the book and a compilation of crime fiction-themed Rory Gallagher songs.