There’s plenty of overlap between the spheres of noise music and the experimental films of Stan Brakhage—an artist whose half-century of images mostly forwent sound so as to amplify the raw textures and colors of the imagery he set to film. Noise music, similarly, often strips itself of any outside instrumentation to keep the focus on piercing, abstract feedback which is continually manipulated over long periods of time.
It’s the perfect match in the video for the new single and title track from Seattle hardcore group City of Industry’s upcoming album Spiritual West, which swaps the panicked vocals and pounding instrumentation of lead single and album opener “Chalk This Up to Assault” for a more ambient unease. “When I wrote these lyrics, I wrote them as a monologue from the perspective of a very familiar state of emptiness and despair,” the band’s John Caraveo shares. “Having to face myself with brutal honesty when thinking about what this song means to me really adds to why I chose it as the title track for the album. It's something we’ve never really done, and it’s pure.”
At just over two minutes, the track slowly mounts in tension, constantly feeling on the verge of exploding before abruptly fading out before any drums kick in. The scratch and hiss of the backing track lend themselves perfectly to the visual created by Adam Walker, who cites Brakhage as a main influence.
“I used a variety of implements to achieve the texture and shapes on the film, using exacto knives, wire scrubbers, sand paper, and even a power drill,” he explains. “And I created the patterns to the rhythm of the song as I listened to it repeatedly, getting lost in a trance as I created the film. I feel the choice of using a more abstract approach for a film to accompany the song is suitable because it strikes at the subconscious more and embeds itself into the channels of anxiety, uncertainty, and even unpleasant nostalgia the song evokes.”
Check out the visual below, and pre-order the LP via No Funeral Records before it drops November 11 here, or the cassette/CD via Modern Grievance here.
