The more I listen to this new Tame Impala song, the more I find it quite interesting. It has a very retro feeling, may be floating and gliding between the 80’s or the 90’s? I don’t know but you certainly get a vintage vibe mixed with a Michael Jackson psychedelia. The band has now released a video for ‘Cause I’m A Man’ and the design of the video will certainly accentuate this mood.
It looks both dated, old fashioned and futuristic, the kind of design that you could see 20 years ago, the kind of stuff that made you think about a future that would never be. But you learn every day, it’s called Hipgnosis, or at least it is an homage to this English art design group based in London, specialized in creating cover art for rock bands such as Pink Floyd, T. Rex, AC/DC, Scorpions, Paul McCartney and the Wings, The Alan Parsons Progect, Genesis, Led Zeppelin and so many others. They basically were doing photoshopping before it was invented.
This new one was made by Weirdcore, who has worked with Aphex Twin and The Horrors amongst others. I don’t know if it is one guy or a team but Weirdcore had this to say about the video: ‘Visually for me, the video is like a kind of homage to Hipgnosis artwork, as I feel Tame Impala’s music is suited to that look and feel. Tame Impala’s new artwork was a great inspiration for the vibe of it. I happily threw in as many artwork cameos as I could from that. Technically the constant moving camera was an ideal way to show near non-moving scenarios, long takes and minimal editing is something I’m always into doing. This is the first 3D video I’ve made where none of the 3D was modeled for it. All assets were either bought/found/acquired/customized from various sources, so it’s a bit like a 3D collage.’
It reminds me the days I was watching music videos on TV, really, this seems such a long time ago! Whether you like or not these disco balls, these people without a head tripping into glam, it’s true that it fits much more the psychedelic ambiance of the music than with the lyrics, that frontman Kevin Parker has explained to be about ‘how weak men are, basically, and how we make all these excuses but really we’re just these odorous male members of the animal kingdom.’
Tame Impala’s anticipated the new album Currents will be out on July 17th, and you can catch the Australian band because they are on tour this summer… And I’ll see them in August, on the Hollywood Forever cemetery great lawn!