Peter Segerstrom meant well in the onset of “Glass Eye”, the latest single from his Surfing project. Segerstrom was going to tell a girl, a story about the time he flew to Mexico on assignment with a magazine. The prompt suggests “Glass Eye” will be more than a mindless repetition of heavy techno automation, that Surfing, despite its suggestively slacker sport moniker, has depth of intent. An assignment in Mexico could mean westernization or drug cartel or kidnappings or border police or superseding the medical restrictions in the U.S. to pursue cheap dentistry in Tijuana or something about the hilltop production of mezcal. “Glass Eye” was on the verge of being an 18-minute anecdote atop techno hypnosis, that is until Segerstrom realizes the girl isn’t listening, distracted by a man with a ponytail and glass eye at the opposite end of the bar.
“He just kept looking at us”, Segerstrom says and as he absorbs more details about the strange man with the ponytail, Segerstrom theorizes “he may have had a glass eye.” Those words, slightly stuttered, become the song and dominate the psyche. “Glass Eye” is dark and comical, distracted by petty observation, slightly judgmental, and options itself as house music worthy of literary analysis. Segerstrom’s story without the pulsating house beat below it means he has little cause to linger on that glass eye, but by finding ourselves at the precipice with only a distracted detail to usher us beyond, “Glass Eye” becomes an unclosed ellipses open to interpretation.
Surfing’s self-titled cassette is out April 7 via 1080p Collection and available for preorder.
