Today I've got another single from Clan Destine Records who released that 7" from Ouija a couple weeks back, Carl mentioned he had another artist, King Dude, who just put out a single on his label and were very different from the Ouija release. Clan Destine has some pretty eclectic releases on everything from VHS to cassette, all kind of bands I've just barely started to hear about...it's shaping up to be a UK NNF, and although it's going to be slightly difficult picking these up, they have some amazing unique one-off artifacts from really great artists. It's obviously curated with this forward looking underground eye, and I just hope they keep releasing the singles every now and then...it seems like the cassettes are winning out lately in the cutting edge format of choice.
Now I have to figure out getting a cassette deck (again) for the stereo. Hello, Salvation Army, my old friend. There's so many moving parts on a cassette deck...but you can make an endless sample tape, like a mobius strip, which is unique to the format. It's just more complicated...but then like Inception, (and vinyl) there's something nice about it being analog. Do we like to see those parts working?....it makes sense we want to witness the creation. It makes it more real to watch the rollers moving and the tape moving from one wheel to the other.
"The Black Triangle", the A-Side is most definitely some kind of minimal folk, related to something I received from Avant records recently, the Cult of Youth 10", those guys are doing a similar no frills chillwave. Just stripped down goth using really minimal instrumentation... like Blessure Grave, it's all about what you're doing with it in the end.
I also loved the video for this track, this girl wandering in a snowy bleak, kind of volcanic landscape. BG take note, there's no singing at the lens, no posing for the camera, no acting. A video like this just elevates the original track, leaving it open to a lot of interpretation.
The layers of vocals over what's basically an acoustic guitar are working in an echo JAMC way. They're removed from the space the guitar is in.
It's all very dark, starting with the slightly sinister quote on the reverse sleeve: "There is an old God...It does not need our love or praise, it does not need us at all. We need it.
There's a bigger theme of darkness and not in an over the top, theatrical way. It's more subtle than that, maybe a kind of acceptance. You don't have to be raging against the machine with all of the volume, maybe this smaller statement is going to be more memorable.
'Never let you go' on the B-Side expands the single dark singer songwriter into a chorus of singers drunkenly chanting 'Never let you go'. It's not a comforting ballad to someone he's in love with, it's the creepy kind of not letting go where you keep the body of your wife in the rocking chair in the living room and talk to her from time to time. It's a little of a drunken bar shanty as well, slurring the words with each chorus, raising a glass...or it's all the multiple personalities chiming in. They aren't filled with joy, emotionless zombies who 'won't let go?' I get it.
Huge kettle drums pound in occasionally, contributing to the ordered march feel of the track, and I forget that the name of this project is King Dude? I really didn't expect this direction from that name, I have to be honest. And I know that the more nonsensical the indie rock name the better, but this should be the title of Wavves next album, not this minimal super depression.
King Dude 'The Black Triangle' 7"
300 copies worldwide
A Side - The Black Triangle
B Side - Never Let You Go
£4.50 including shipping anywhere.
Get it HERE
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