An experimental musician’s provision of an appropriate visual accompaniment to a track is something sparsely offered, and the emotional success of the imagery is perhaps even sparser. Brooklyn trio JOBS’ (formerly killer BOB) new video for “Patient Angel”, off their forthcoming killer BOB sings LP, only compliments the indecisive discomfort of the track; both sounds and sights commenting on modern conventionalism. A colorful juxtaposition of cartooned images—grotesque faces, a plump man walking, a long-armed creature systematically (and incessantly) smoking bowls—hint at the ugliness of the day-to-day, as they crudely coat background black and white cinematography of a dead reality—fast-motion traffic scenes, aimlessly swimming fish, and static nothingness. As sense is attempted to be made from the visuals, the track itself is almost intentionally confounding, with an impossibly quick thumping heartbeat of a rhythm to start, like deadened tom hits, and melodic absence bordering on dissonance. Eventually kick drum, snare and cymbals are introduced, but not in any conventional way, the whole thing creating a mood of cautious stepping, and the vocals range from falsetto cries to grumbled moans that ask the haphazardly uncaring cliché, “how u been?” The track demands the patience of the listener, and the video seems to echo its request for insight, the satisfaction of its flashes of vibrant color negated by their perplexing sequence, if not the music’s unintelligibility. Negatives of a man doing an oddly sexual dance and scenes of the band playing come to the forefront towards the end of the video, as clarinets and other woodwinds beckon like an inquisitive singsong goose, and finally, satisfactorily blaring all distortion at the video’s chaotic conclusion.
killer BOB sings is out June 30 on New Amsterdam Records.
