When trans-European goes transatlantic: Electro Looks, a neo-psychedelic single by Vagus. Digital download available from all good online stores.
Influenced by the seminal krautrock scene of the early seventies and specifically pioneers Can, Neu! and Kraftwerk, songwriters James Dolan and Gary Law have set about sculpting this neo-psychedelic sound and embellishing it with an electronic production manicured for the digital natives. This Germanic pre-punk art music has not yet had its full renaissance, it’s like the missing piece of a jigsaw, a piece now in the hands of the real Vagus, musical disciples who learnt their craft before the switch to information overload, a time when you couldn’t find out what your favourite guitarist had for breakfast at the swipe of a screen. Indulging in a shock of surrealist art, wantonly carving their way through a mountain of veneered “roast beef” that is the modern pop video, they have collaborated with Texas artist Laura Grace Robles aka Birthday Gurl.
Birthday Gurl emerged in the underground San Antonio music scene with film installation and projections in collaboration with Grammy winner Marcel Rodríguez-López of The Mars Volta at a musical performance by Eureka the Butcher. She also performed video work to a disc jockey experience by Gordon Raphael the producer of The Strokes. Laura is a member of musical collective iLL Prospekt. She completed a body of short fake mockumentaries titled after FOXY. Other various junk films include Jesus Practice, EL GATO and Rap Scar exploring dysfunction, compulsion and obsession. Laura with Fabrizio Federico is a founder of the Straight Jacket Guerilla Film Festival.
“Vagus have once again delivered a fine piece of spiced-up funkadelic cake. Bordering on Stevie Wonder’s Superstition and something off of Kraftwerk’s Tour De France, they have certainly upped their game here with their single thus proving there is set to be a long player on the horizon! There’s a Daft Punk feel to both their sound as well as their video here, so be sure to hunt for it. The concept Vagus tin has a Warhol touch to it on the cover, giving insight that they’re not only about the music. Anyone for beans?”
Gavin Tate reviewing Electro Looks
Electro Looks lyrics
Restart from the end
There’s ghost in the machine
Keeping tabs on friends
And everyone you meet
Them when they send
A message you can’t read
Dialects or trends
On this it all depends
So hungover
No one home
Arms are frozen
Can you come
What’s it like when you’re so hungover
What’s it like when there’s no one home
Can you feel if your arms are frozen
Can you come
Ghost in the machine
If science wipes your mind clean
Your minds clean
Reflect in the mist
If science wipes your mind clean
With a fist
In the air of godlike genius
Reboot remind persist it’s on your list
No resistance to exist
Ghost in the machine
What’s it like when you’re so hungover
What’s it like when there’s no one home
Can you feel when your arms are frozen
Can you come
(Repeat to end)
Song written by James Dolan and Gary Law
Produced by Gary Law