“I’m gonna throw my arms around the void.”
A post-apocalyptic ballad for cautious love.
Signed to Manchester indie label Further Sky, Danny McClelland’s second video release as Pascal is a showcase of a confident, emotionally-charged musicianship that reviews the emo-alt with electronic textures and digital sensibilities.
‘Love in The Form of Deathrays‘ is the second track from album ‘The Heart of a Mountain Lion’. Debuted on BBC’S Across The Line. Pascal has inspired comparison to Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse from radio presenter Stuart Bailie, a similarity that finds itself in the young creative’s acute and changing awareness of himself as an artist and his emotional identity. Think: sequenced Neutral Milk Hotel, as Pascal shines the brightest light on the darkest pieces of himself.
The video, as produced by Paul Campbell, stays true to the artist’s indie authenticity, tracking three young men making the most of the Irish coast in less-than-favorable weather conditions. Despite the overcast and markedly cold high-contrast visuals, colored filters and close-up shots of smiles underscore an importance of perspective. In a scene of absent colors, the camera focuses on a yellow dandelion bloom before the surf melts into a sea of glittering FX as Pascal underscores his sensibility to find color in the plain.
Lo-fi settings are foregrounded in vintage drum-machine rhythms and the analog synth-line that traces the track, while an engine of sequenced bass drives us through Pascal’s conjured landscape and its emotional landmarks. In his ironic dance rhythms, Pascal flirts between and challenges the boundaries of pop-sensibility and alt-rock, putting us in a good boat where we’re never stuck in one place too long.
“I wanted to get across the feeling of having a really sentimental video for me and my friends but still keep it sarcastic as heck.
The great thing about having Paul (Campbell) make the video was because we were already really great pals, so he knew how keep things comfortable and natural when he was filming us.
Those featured are my best buds Pete and Aidan. It was Aidan’s first time exploring the coast, so it’s kind of like a great weekend to remember captured on video forever.”
