Image
Bands

Los Angeles Industrial Synth-Punk Artist Cruel Kiss Debuts Video for “Ultimate”

Who’s ready to unleash a bit of the old ultraviolence?

Los Angeles industrial synth-punk artist Cruel Kiss debuts a bizarre, disjointed, and vaguely disturbing new lo-fi video for the blistering track, Ultimate. The dense techno is supercharged with driving percussion in the vein of NIN, Suicide, and Skinny Puppy.

For Cruel Kiss, the song expresses a cathartic battle over introverted anxiety and complacency. He uses the imagery of latching onto immobile trains as a manic prisoner and then finding an escape and final release. The desolate and industrial landscape was a significant location to the artist in drawing inspiration from the past, and to reset towards the future.

“The theme is about displaying violence to encourage strength and power against the vile nature of the modern world,” says the band. “It’s an explosive call to arms and everyone is invited.”

The video, directed by Phoenix, was shot in the arts district of downtown LA, under the 6th Street Bridge.

Watch below:

Cruel Kiss is a DIY effort, after a lifetime of operating as a hired gun guitarist in various LA bands. This led to an obsession with synths, drum machines, sound design and recording. “For a while I’ve felt debilitated by an endless pit of unreleased material,” he says. “I’ve felt isolated from engaging in the music community and sharing my work. Cruel Kiss is my rebirth from a long hiatus and I look forward to creating an energy and being a part of the electronic community…Although my music is only electronic and sequential there is ton of emotion behind it. It’s raw feeling, it’s my outlet, it’s my reaction to the outside world on display.”

Follow Cruel Kiss:

Alice Teeple

Alice Teeple is a photographer, multidisciplinary artist, and writer. She is not in Tin Machine.

Recent Posts

  • Bands

Toronto Shoegazers Rituals Debut Hazy Post-Punk Single “Illusions”

Toronto shoegaze outfit Rituals first stirred to life in 2009, a quiet experiment in Adam Seward’s small, dim room, where…

14 hours ago
  • Bands

Filled with Fire — Swiss Cold Wavers Future Faces Unveil Video for “Neon Outlines”

Filled with fire Come to me Suspended with so much pleasure No matter how scared we may be To live…

15 hours ago
  • Bands

Starlight Star Bright — Icelandic Trio Kælan Mikla Pull Down the Veil of Night in Their Video for “Stjörnuljós”

Be a starlight once more that guides me in the dead of night and when your fire weakens I shall…

1 day ago
  • Bands

Qual Unleashes Sci-Fi Apocalyptic Video for Primal EBM Jam “Funeral Fashion”

Sarcophagus golden carcass Sarcophagus rigor mortis Drenched in cataclysm and curled in dystopian dread, Qual—William Maybelline’s fierce alter ego—seizes the…

3 days ago
  • Bands

Los Angeles Duo Faith In Flesh Inject Chilling EBM and Darkwave into Their Unsettling Video for “Psychodermatology”

Skin sloughed off Exposed rot Sickness spied Wet, weak eyes Lacerated soul Psychodermatology is a medical field that studies the…

3 days ago
  • Bands

Philadelphia’s Cigarettes for Breakfast Prescribe Heartrending Shoegaze Panacea “Numb the Pain”

Loving something you shouldn’t is like clutching a live wire—painful, charged, and impossible to release. You know it’s wrong, yet…

3 days ago
Sticky Footer Banner with Close Button