Last month Barcelos unveiled their impressive track Blairgowrie, which we labelled as one of the best debut singles of the last six months. The dreamy and doom laden track exceeded expectations with its precision, experimentation and vicious energy.
Today Barcelos have surpassed our expectations once again, this time with their accompanying video.
The video is dark, metaphorically and literally. It explores inward turmoil and a fight against self-destruction, mirrored through the black and white opaqueness in which the clip finds it’s home.
Blairgowrie was filmed in the same house the track was written in, as a torment-stained homage to its refuge and biting deliverance.
Vocalist James Medley says he wrote the song during a “rather eye opening and destructive part of my life. Lost and uncertain, always drinking too much and hanging with the wrong crowd.”
The song explores a hazy night out, and “escaping, getting away from all the burdens, stresses and bad habits.”
Harry Anderson (whose prior work includes the politically satirical video Disappear for band Fan Girl) filmed the video on a rain soaked night. Anderson cleverly incorporated the weather rather than fight against it, enhancing the darkness that the song requests.
The video opens in true Australian form, at a beach. The waves are tormented, crashing against the shore. A lone rock stands amidst the torrent, sturdy with revolve against the avid chaos. The scene perfectly mirrors the sentiments of the song – that of being lost and uncertain in a world of imminent destruction.
The band appears within a shadowy yard, littered with lights. The illumination shimmers against the blackness, a reflection of the emotional softness of the track juxtaposed against the band’s primal energy.
Contrast is continual in the video; the deliberate exaggeration of movement smeared against a subtle brightness instils a sense of beaming energy, reflective in the bands high-powered performance.
Barcelos will be releasing their double single Blairgowrie//Romantic on 7” vinyl along on March 1st at The Gasometer Hotel, with special guests Soft Corporate and Smoke Rings. Details here.
