Altered Zones

Excepter's Nathan Corbin, aka Zebrablood, just sent in these ominous, loosely narrative black-and-white visuals for London-via-Melbourne electronic group HTRK, pronounced "Hate Rock." Following the tragic suicide of founding member Sean Stewart in March of last year, Jonnine Standish and Nigel Yang returned this September with a new studio full-length on Ghostly International-- their second in the group's nearly eight years of existence. "Bendin'" layers Standish's ghostly vocals over dub-slow deep bass hits and slinky, contrapuntal beat programming. Corbin's video first spoke to me of the feeling of rediscovering the streets and interiors of your everyday urban itinerary through the eyes of an outsider, but according to the director, the truth is way more elaborate than that:

"An alien crash lands in downtown LA, breaking a water main. Balancing itself against the Earth's gravity, the alien bends and twists out of sight from firemen inspecting the damage. It finds seclusion in the city's little used elevators and escalators. It tries to drink water but can't swallow. The alien wanders into an arcade. Men play pool surrounded by a dozen TVs all playing the same soap opera. These humans, waiting for the bus or floating down the boardwalk on segways, seem all the more estranged. Yet the alien puts this circus of weirdos at unease. The alien twists down the boardwalk with it's energy drink in imitation of the humans around it...impossibly trying to fit in.

Jonnine and Nigel both play the alien. 'Bendin'' is dance video, literalizing the song's themes of bending and twisting in the movements of the alien." --Emilie Friedlander, Visitation Rites

WORK (work, work) is out now on Ghostly International