Following the release of Downstairs People’s sophomore album on INDEX:Records in June, New Zealand-born now Berlin-based visual artist and director Sam W. Harper delivers an otherworldly music video for ‘Show You‘ filmed inside a 30 million year old cave system in Whangārei.
Simply titled ‘DSP’, Downstairs People’s album expands on their surreal horoscope of Top 40 musings, with nine works that explore the altered states of pop. DSP reimagines the FM Radio spectrum with distorted hooks, sour candy production and cascading vocal harmonies with no lyrics. Sung to us in an unknown language, it’s an archive of warped transmissions from beyond our solar system, conveniently recorded and presented as a flat, spinning monolith.
‘Show You‘ marks a musical collaboration between like-minded producers; Special Guest DJ, Ben Bondy, Hysterical Love Project, Black Snake Whip and Vase, resulting in a vaporous blend of downtempo hyper-pop and atmospheric electronica. Sam W. Harper explains the concept for the music video:
“The visuals for ‘Show You’ were recorded during a short stay at my mum’s house in Whangārei, Aotearoa (New Zealand). Near her home is an underground river that flows through a 30 million year old cave system; a space adorned with stalactites and lit with the ghostly luminescence of native glow worms. I became obsessed with this earth rift, returning day after day with a head torch and my camera equipment. The manipulation of this footage became the visual exploration of ambiguity and androgyny; mixing blur, stones, patterns, marks, and bodies to create an unease and uncertainty in what the viewer was seeing.”
‘DSP’ is out now via INDEX:Records. Order a copy from Bandcamp.
