As David Cronenberg explicitly showed us thirty years ago, extrasensory sibling perception is a very real and sometimes-horrifying phenomenon. Yet this super power can also be used for good, as modeled by DOOMSQUAD, a Toronto-based family band with a soft spot for nu-disco. Fresh off the release of their latest electronic opus, Let Yourself Be Seen, last month, the group are sharing their latest clip of sibling reverie in the form of a music video for the track “Let It Go.”
An appropriately spacey clip, “Let It Go” is an extraterrestrial visit to the desert to accompany the track’s sped-up ambiance and baroque vocals. It truly has everything: calisthenics, psychedelic guitar solos, milk. “We knew we wanted to create this visual phantasmagoria that rapidly cycles through a succession of images,” the band clarifies of the fast-pace succession of surreal imagery. “The song has this propulsive, urgent energy, but it’s also almost seven minutes long, so we needed to figure out a way to respond to the urgency of the song, but in a way that holds people’s attention ’til the end.”
They continue, “We had read somewhere that the average attention span of people in the age of Instagram was something like eight seconds, so we took that as our starting point and decided to construct a video that felt like you’re watching Instagram stories cycle past, but heading towards a certain impactful resolve. Like the sum total of all the rapid images in the sequence would arrive at some sort of emotional climax, dance and movement being the expressive anchor points that carry you through it. This was an extremely collaborative effort, and all the different looks and sequences are a result of everyone’s different contributions.”
Of the shoot’s costume design, they conclude: “Almost all the clothes and outfits in the video were made by emerging designers, mostly from Canada and Spain. We’ve always been into fashion, but because this video was entirely dependent on the images carrying across meaning, rather than a narrative, collaborating with emerging designers seemed like a mutually beneficial direction to take. Our friend and frequent collaborator Carolina Fernandez Vidal, who served as stylist for many of the sequences, was the link that connected us to all these amazing emerging designers from Spain, and she got us access to an abundance of really cool pieces. Another huge help came from brilliant Montreal designer, Yung Alexander, who so graciously lent us a bunch of super groovy rave inspired items fresh off the runway.”
Let Yourself Be Seen is out now via Bella Union. You can order it here. Check out the band’s tour schedule below the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6IAdwWtimg&feature=youtu.be
