Yesterday, Brooklyn collective ISTA teased their upcoming second album In Sound to All with the neo-psych blues-rock rager “Gods in Heat,” a jerky tune built upon blown-out riffs and a backing bed of buzzing synths. As frontman Rex Costello notes, that gargantuan bass riff was the backbone for the song—even if it was initially intended for another demo, which never materialized. “It was really just what my body felt like expressing in the moment as I prepared to record the bass part and test the volume,” he explains. “It was fun to play and it caught my attention so I experimented with a few versions, recorded a quick voice memo, and then continued my process with the aforementioned demo.” From there, he was able to add vocal harmonies and lyrics that strive to “[shake] the listener awake to the intensity, splendor, stillness, chaos, and vastness of existence—a kind of cosmic recognition.”
To amplify that splendor, the band is revealing a music video for the tune that splices together scenes of the band (done up like 18th century aristocrats, naturally) performing the tune with vintage mid-century B-roll and comic book iconography. “The visual concept was derived from the kinetic feeling of flipping through a comic book or zine, where the flashes of imagery and staccato animation are gripping and hypnotic at the same time,” the video’s director Connor Lawson explains. “Trevor Brendan worked with me to shoot the live performances with this final look in mind; as well as lead the printing and animation process which really gave the video its final ‘eight-ball’ zine look through his selection of high pulp, off-white newspaper print stock, the stippled DPI arrangement of this specific inkjet printer, and bootleg toner.”
Check out the visually (and sonically) loud video below.
