TPR Featured Video: “Tangerine” – Electric Eye

Written By: Chris Parsons

The psychedelic supergroup quartet, Electric Eye, hailing from Norway, have released a brand new music video for “Tangerine” in promotion of their forthcoming, debut album, Pick-up, Lift-off, Space. The highly anticipated full-length album is set for release by their native, Klangkollektivet Records, as well as international distribution supplemented by Fuzz Club Records on April 5, 2013. A few other tracks have already been leaked to preview Electric Eye‘s unique brand of neo-psychedelia and knack for layered, krautrock vamping; at times sparse, and, at other times, heavy with a collage of underlying grooves and ragas with garage rock energy. The album will serve to showcase, for the first time, the talents of seasoned musicians (Oystein Braut, guitarist of The Alexandria Quartet; Njal Clementsen of Bergen noise-rockers, The Megaphonic Thrift and Low Frequency in Stereo; underground studio-guru and guitarist in art-rocker act, Hypertext, Anders Bjelland; and Jazz/Noise/Drone-drummer, Oyvind Hegg-Lunde) that have emerged and grown within Norway’s musical capital, Bergen, finally coming together all in one room!

Really, need we say more? The “Tangerine” music video is as warm and aesthetically pleasing as Electric Eye‘s heady, propulsive sound. There is no plot offered, but rather a seemingly ambient, kaleidoscopic display of a summer roadtrip through a barren, desert landscape. The vision seems to experimentally and sufficiently capture the artistic moods and chemistry of the musicians. The eye candy video manipulation seems to evoke similar vibrations to how one experiences Electric Eye‘s mind-manifesting sound; as the audience, you don’t have to try to experience the art, but are able to just exist, for the sole purpose of soaking in the collage of sensual energy, like a sponge, or the overwhelming sense of a kid in a candy shop.

TPR Music Video Premier: Oracle O. – “Voodoo Walk”

Written By: Chris Parsons

The rise of Copenhagen’s power duo,  Oracle O., introduces a fresh contender to the international, psychedelic and underground music scenes of 2013. The two-piece has recently signed a record deal to our favorite Norwegian label, Fuzz Club Records (The Wands, Dead Skeletons, Singapore Sling), with plans to release their debut LP, “Cracking the Eyes,” this April. In the meantime, Oracle O. has leaked their first single by way of an artistic music video for “Voodoo Walk,” which was directed by Eva Mulvad, who was recently a recipient of the World Cinema Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007.

Overtop scenes of Afghanistan culture, the video is stylized as a mini-documentary of real people and places, as “Voodoo Walk” fuels the cinematics with a high-tail psychedelic energy. The track opens up with a plane landing as a steady, tribal-esque drum beat pulses into the foreground and a minor pentatonic riff  that curiously recalls the aesthetics of both traditional Oriental music and surf rock. Female vocals are then introduced and accompanied by the drums as the lyrics, complimented by the visuals, begin to paint a vague scene of doom-and-gloom. This opening sound is very much reminiscent of the early White Stripes, especially the snarling, bluesy vocals of Madeleïne Käte McGowan, the female incarnation of Jack White. The guitar then kicks in with a very warbly fuzz, droning and grooving on warm harmonics in the background. All the while, the incessant, tribal funk drumming assumes the subtle, yet propulsive earworm nature of a krautrock pulse. McGowan’s vocals become increasingly heated and infused with a contagious energy, as the instrumental intensity of the guitar and drums builds towards an angry, wailing climax. As an introduction, Oracle O.‘s writing style for “Voodoo Walk,” much like its members, seems to exhibit strengths in minimalism, while the heady tone of their garage rock fuzz and kraut percussion creates an electric air of energy boiling over.