Never has “You love to laugh/ I love to laugh too” sounded so deeply unnerving as on Profligate’s “Laughing Song.” The track comes from their latest album Finding the Floor, which also so happens to be Not Not Fun’s 300th release *gestures champagne flute in NNF’s direction as to toast*. I was about to call it coldwave, but every other online description I can find lists it as techno/post-punk. It’s definitely not post-punk though? Better to progress without a genre-title: on this track, Profligate throws together dozens of phantasmic blips, warbles, tones and beats into a simmering cauldron, resulting in a delicious — but possibly poisonous — soup of analog textures which are all the more creepy/brilliant for how elusive they prove to be if you try to pin them down. Blurring the line between dancing and having the shivers, like the flickering of a candle flame. Not in-your-face, but rather in the shadows, hinting at themselves and going bump in the night. It was just the wind — or was it?
Chrissy Jones’ video is really worth watching in full — multiple times — like video of the year even. Not over- or under-thought, neither nostalgic-kitschy or ultra-modern-kitschy, just a video full to the brim with interesting ideas and techniques, which are as simple yet dazzling as the sleight-of-hand card tricks the nameless figures on the screen pull off. The video showcases all the joy and terror of a Venetian acid trip, the figures come to life when the museum closes its doors.
SCOPE NEWS FOR MORE INTIMATE DETAILS!!!!!!!!!
• Profligate: http://profligate.bandcamp.com
• Not Not Fun: http://www.notnotfun.com
