Collapsing Scenery have shared the official video for The Grey Cardinal. The track is lifted from their album ’Stress Positions’ which is out now via Metropolitian Indian (order). Collapsing Scenery is the meeting of two fertile and febrile minds, Don De Vore (Ink & Dagger, Lilys, The Icarus Line, Amazing Baby) and Reggie Debris. The band’s latest video was directed by Mads Jensen and stars Ashley Cahill, Z Berg, Nick Hinman, Leila Spilman, Charlotte Ritchie and more. Check out the video clip for The Grey Cardinal.
About the video Reggie Debris says: “The Grey Cardinal is a nickname for Vladislav Surkov, the architect of the modern Russian propaganda machine. His tactics, largely derived from his background in experimental theater, essentially boil down to creating a thicket of confusion and mistrust out of which a strong leader can emerge and provide a sense of stability and solidity. The miasma of chaos and obfuscation is created in part by developing and/or supporting opposing groups of activists (for example far-right nationalists and left wing anti-fascists). The song is a meditation on how these ideas and tactics have proliferated across the modern political landscape and exploded with the prevalence of online news and web based communities, as well as a sort of abstract character study of Surkov himself, an eminently fascinating demon of modern discourse (or lack thereof).
Collapsing Scenery straddles the gap between music, art, film and politics, seamlessly moving between each with the same ease at which they traverse the globe, soaking up experiences and immersing themselves in different cultures.
Since they formed in 2013 “under a pall of paranoia and disgust” they haven’t stopped moving. Recent collaborations include Jamaican dancehall legend Ninjaman, Beastie Boys producer/collaborator Money Mark, and no-wave pioneer James Chance. The band also has remixes out or on the way from Genesis P-Orridge (Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle), Jennifer Herrema (Royal Trux), Uniform, Youth Code, Brian DeGraw (Gang Gang Dance), and more.
A conversation with them recalls stories of recently recording a ‘goth-dancehall’ track in Jamaica, sailing their sound system into Britain for a series of shows, visiting occupied territories in Palestine on fact-finding missions, recording their debut album on a remote ranch in Texas and soaking up rays in Corsica – and that’s in the first five minutes.
The band’s debut album ‘Stress Positions‘ is a collision of futurist electro, glacial goth tones, techno, post-punk and chillwave recorded using analogue electronics: samplers, step sequencers, synths and drum machines. Aesthetically it initially recalls the early pioneering synth-punk of bands such as Human League, Screamers and The Normal, when the most forwarding thinking punks looked to the twenty-first century. Dig deeper however and it reveals an articulate and highly politicised collection that’s far from mired being in nostalgia for the recent past. Quite the opposite: ‘Stress Positions’ is a forward-looking album with strong state-of-the-world lyrical content. In the tradition of so many defining electro duos – whether Suicide, Pet Shop Boys or Underworld – Collapsing Scenery’s architecture is entirely of their own creation. They’ve built their own world and live in it. The album also features contributions from UK grime artist Jammz, award wining Palestinian hip hop group DAM, LA shoegazer Tamaryn and several other likeminded collaborators.
‘Stress Positions’ track list
1. I Never Knew
2. New World Borders (feat. DAM)
3. All The Way Alive
4. Years Of Lead (Are Back Again)
5. Sisyphus Of The Negev
6. The Grey Cardinal
7. Queen Of Proofs (feat. Jammz)
8. Forbidding Forbidding
9. Angkar
10. Of Two Minds
11. Bush Mama Blues
12. St. Seraphim Redux
13. The Blue And The Black
14. Kill The Indian Save The Man (feat. Tamaryn)
Collapsing Scenery offer a new vision for how a modern band can be. They’re not even a band – they’re curators of a series of planet-planning events, expressions, exhibitions, albums, installations, journeys, adventures and parties, all operating outside of the confines of the tired traditional industry.
Collapsing Scenery are artistic explorers pushing into bold new futures, then. Join them.
