Low profile London based synth-punk outfit Powerplant have just released a video for “Warm Skin” taken from their sophomore album “People In the Sun”, ltd. cassette and digital, via Dreamland Syndicate label, a vibrant, urgent and deranged lo-fi mix of feverish hypnotic synths, tense guitars chords, distorted rhythms and emotional vocals.
Off-kilter searing dismal synths disseminate drone doom alarms staggered by resilient metallic backbeats, and deep enigmatic premonitory chants and hymns to form a cacophonous momentum of apocalyptic doom. Strategically placed decay echoes and space invader hiss add dimension to the trance-inducing experience by awakening the alert half of consciousness causing a bipolar effect. After the clash, the resonance and reverberations comingle and share intensities allowing a rhythmic balance to take hold.
A reference to the title is revealed using unconventional filming techniques, elaborate blocks, and one long continuous take of a soothing hot bath set against the backdrop of a room obscured in an amorphous haze of flickering candlelight, bath steam and retrohaled smoke contradict the senses between the peaceful relaxing water steaming beads of sweat and restless ‘being watched’ facial expressions. Shadows and smoke shift, fog, and distort boundaries allowing a cloaked phantom with a menacing inhuman claw to pierce, slash, and blur lines of found art. A cheeky finale with an ‘erotic’ twist compels a double take leading to a mindscrewing epiphany not soon forgotten.
A magnetic mesmerizing convergence of music summoning ceremonial primal vicissitude.
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by Linda Carrot
