After taking some time off to finish up other projects, COLOR WAR drops the new single "TFW" on all streaming platforms, hinting at some things to come. This track, off the forthcoming Thru The Clouds EP, recalls the feels of their early vocal work, as Lindsay Mound traces the outline of an overwhelming teenage crush. With sonic-manipulator and live-video wizard Brandon Sciarrotta joining the group full-time, "TFW" points to a more finely-layered sound, cresting in waves and elevating the listener through emotional dynamics among bursts of freeform noise.
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First look at the track and video, premiering on Noisey
"Bitte, bitte, bitte, bitte…" intones an otherworldly refrain. Color War's latest song starts in ambient swathes with singer Lindsay Mound's ethereal incantations. Here the NYC trio move through the song like a sun-dazed kid skipping through a field of flowers, speeding up and tripping over, and falling into a synthy swoon, and spinning in giddy circles for the chorus. The video, meanwhile, is a kaleidoscopic clip made up of iphone footage shot over the past 12 months and overlaid with Mound karaoke-ing her heart out. It'll make you want to dance the night away with the singer, shouting into a shared mic with abandon. And if you want to do just that, the band have, rather helpfully cut together a lyric video for just such an occasion.
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WATCH the new video for "Hallways" directed by Laure Atanasyan and read Kim Taylor Bennett's review from Noisey below.
When Brooklyn duo Color War dropped their video for "Shapeshifting" at the tail-end of last year, it instantly rocketed to the top of my best videos of 2014 list. Not only was the song the bomb—a glacially cool cut of synth-pop—but director Crystal Moselle followed three teen ballerinas as they bent and danced and dipped all over the NYC city streets, capturing everything in glorious slo-mo. (Fun fact Moselle is also the director of the award-winning documentary The Wolfpack. Read all about that here.)
This is just some background really. What we have today is exciting for several reasons.
1. Color War's new track "Hallways" is excellent. With its boomy 80s smacks and Italo disco oscillations, singer Lindsay Mound's 2 AM croon weaves a spell of recollection: remember passing that person you liked in the school hallway? When one flicked glance and look away was enough to have you blushing in your Keds. Sigh. At least that's what I thought when I first heard it. But then, the more you listen, the more a different, more heartbreaking narrative emerges: about walking past your ex's house, the key you never gave back burning a hole in your pocket, daydreaming about encountering that lover again and falling into a tryst made breathless by the weight of history.
"And of course I kept my key / We had a home inside that house," she sings. Oof. If that doesn't hit you in the heart, I don't know what will.
2. But onto the accompanying video, premiering above. It's genesis came about in the best the-internet-brings-randoms-together story I've heard in ages. According to Billy J (the other half to Color War) it went down like this: a fan and director in Paris called Laure Atanasyan heard the song and shot a video in her bedroom and sent it over. Simple as that. It's sort of a one-step on from the "Shapeshifting" video—it's intimate and teenage and you feel just a little voyeuristic watching it, like you've stumbled on some found footage of Ally Sheedy back in her Breakfast Club post-makeover days.
Of course Lindsay and Billy loved it. Below is a little exchange to find out more about the mysterious Ms. Atanasyan.