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 Featured Track + Video Premier: Tell Me – Dark Dark Dark

Written By: Chris Parsons

Earlier this month, we got to indulge in the fresh and much anticipated 2012 full-length release, Who Needs Who, from Minneapolis folk rockers, Dark Dark Dark. Now, on the verge of November, the group has released a music video for “Tell Me,” the second song, and early single from the 10 track album put out by Supply and Demand Music. The track has a reserved, nostalgic feel to it, both in its sound and visuals; an aesthetic that is not unfamiliar to Dark Dark Dark‘s soft and jazzy mid-western folk.

Nona Marie Invie’s vocals are once again at the forefront, and she also stars as the only actor in the music video, seemingly isolated in a world, so much that she wears a helmet and gloves to further distance herself from the environment around her. Her vocals rise and fall in playful, yet pensive call-and-answers, closely accompanied by a melodic piano and propelled by the sparse, yet necessary drums. The bass is steady and supporting the other instrumentation with a rich foundation. The bass and drums seem to build the song’s story arc into a soft climax to keep the momentum interesting and listenable, which is even further supplemented by a subtle wash of guitar fuzz, creating an atmospheric wall-of-sound and giving a nod to those who appreciate the intricacies of delicate undertones and precise arrangement. The mood of the track and the accompanying video is somber, as  Invie’s lyrics from a first-person perspective seem to reflect on an old or possibly struggling romance: “I want to live in a time when you cherished me…tell me it’s there, just beyond reach…tell me you’re saving it for me.” In the video, Invie starts in an office in the city, but soon ventures out in her protective gear, perhaps visiting old memories and surrounding herself with the comforting ambiance of nature. At the track’s closing, we see her character rowing briefly. Upon landing on a bank, she sheds her extra garb, places it in the boat, and pushes it off shore. In this new place, Invie seems comfortable and at peace; she can naturally breath and feel the air around her and chooses to strand herself, as the discarded canoe slowly drifts away.