Tectonic shifts tend to happen with the dawn of new ages, and this winter has shown no exception for Danish outfit Iceage. The band has parted ways with Matador Records, and announced a partnership with Mexican Summer and a new single: The Holding Hand.
There is no shape, there is no form/But a smoky rolling mass
In addition to the label shift, Copenhagen band has also added guitarist Casper Morilla Fernandez to their lineup. A menacing violin riff permeates the song, adding an eerie urgency to the overall emotional effect. The Holding Hand is a nod to the sinister, slow-burn songwriting of Nick Cave with trembling vocals. It brings to mind an early Spiritualist seance setting, where mediums claimed they could facilitate physical manifestations using ectoplasm. As the song crescendoes into the ecstatic repetitive chant “O limp-waisted God,” one can imagine the floating spectre appear in the darkness.
“The song lives in a slurred world, movements are elastically stretched out and strength is found in weakness while you find it hard to tell the difference between fume and matter,” says band frontman Elias Bender Rønnenfelt. “Gently the swaying intensifies, feel it escalate. Reach out for the holding hand, it seems almost within scope now.”
The mysterious accompanying video, directed by Anders Malmberg, is a visual dirge matching the sluggish delivery of the track, flashing between the members shouting into mirrors and finding themselves in eerie isolation. It’s a perfect melding of sound and vision.
Malmberg reflects upon the creation of the video: “The band has such an amazing and soulful presence, and my aim was to create a cinematic experience around image reflections that would tie in closely to the narrative and the emotional atmosphere of the track, and let the authenticity that the band radiates feel ever-present.”
Stay tuned for more from Iceage.
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