If you’ve been lucky enough to hear TV CULT already, then you were better off than me five minutes ago. For those that haven’t and who like post-punk, we have a treat for you today. Think of High Vis and Joy Division shaking hands like Dutch and Dillon did in Predator and you’ve got a strong idea of what to expect from this German quartet. Chorus effect-glazed guitars, darkly driving energy, and a deliberate attitude that make the genre what it is. It’s a classic sound distilled down throughout the decades, but always seems to call back to its genesis in the late ’70s and ’80s even with the best production available.
These dudes got a new album coming out on October 10 called Industry through Flight13 Records, dropping a few singles to hype it up including “Overpressure”. What’s new though is its riveting and enthralling video, at least if you’re anything like me. Even if you’ve heard the song already, I implore you to take a peek below and meet me on the other side.
I’ve got a thing for liminal spaces and urban environments, but I’m not an explorer myself, I’m simply a faraway enjoyer. I like seeing the architecture, the symmetry, the asymmetry, bold color and design choices, places that people have made their own marks through graffiti or other art – this makes the video for “Overpressure” a pure delight. I have to assume the spaces in this video are around Germany, likely the band’s native Cologne, a place I’ve never been and therefore have a whole new appreciation of. The video shifts scenes at about each new bar in the track which makes for a nice pace and balance allowing your eyes to travel around the scene before feeding you something new. Bravo to the video director, Martin Hughes.
As a companion to the song, it matches immaculately. The still or walking pace of the video picks up to a jog or run when the song enters its busy and loud chorus with striking, shouted vocals and elevated instrumentation – the drums get splashier, the guitars and melodies they weave become much more prominent and pronounced. Not to be outdone are the verses, which calm the storms set on by the hook with a reliable and repeated riff that twinkles in the night. I can practically see this track being played by TV CULT in a moody ’80s club to get people moving passionately.
The lyrics contend with how pressure, stress, and expectation take tolls on us with vivid imagery (‘What do they think/Whilst they die/Coffin-shaped tears/Aren’t even dry/Ripe flesh/Red and black’) and, to me at least, recontextualized the settings of the video where in my real life, my relationship with transit stations, trains, and hubs like the ones in the video mean commuting to work, stress, and being tired. I’m tired when I get into Union Station at 7:30 AM, I’m tired when I get back there at 4:30 PM to go back home. And yet, I’m still comforted by the video because it’s not my world even if it looks similar.
TV CULT are ones worth a follow and you can do just that through their Instagram, Facebook, and Bandcamp page where you can also preorder Industry digitally before it drops on October 10. If you’re a physical person, then cartwheel over to Flight13 Records‘ website (hope you know German… and have some tariff money if you’re in the US). Going off of this and the other tracks on Industry, you won’t wanna miss out.
Band photo by Nirén Mahajan
