Boston-based post-rockers Bat House have been keeping busy in 2015, and the retro-psychedelic video for “Twist” is great evidence to that effect. I first met this rad bunch playing a house show on their turf earlier this year, and I must insist to any and all readers that you go out and see them live – their performance is unmistakably genius, and their energy will stick with you for days. In fact, while I’m talking about their live shows, I probably should mention that they’re playing a gig at The Middle East in Cambridge with Dent, Gamma Pope (also NSM favorites), and Big Boy Club.
The track begins with a furiously jangling guitar part panned far left as multiple black-and-white landscape squares flit around on the screen – color is added as the vocals come in (“and all the people you knew are twisting away”), which lends for a really nice initial sense of resolution and building-up-toward. It’s really hard to describe the vibe that the music conveys; it’s at once hectic and technicolor (lots of notes and riffing with rapid finger-picking, if I’m not mistaken) but also somehow relaxed and driving, like really hyperactive driving music. The video definitely lends itself to a journey-like feel, seeing as we’re treated to many a landscape flashing by (alongside much less intelligible glitch-hazed images) in a many-colored impressionistic sequence. In any case, I’ll shut up and let you start enjoying this video for at least a little while. It’s a good one.
Keep up with Bat House on facebook, and don’t forget to check them out at The Middle East on January 18!
Middle East Upstairs, 472 Massachusetts Ave. Cambridge, MA 02139 Doors 8:00pm | All Ages | $10
Photo by Kit Castagne.
