Image
Video Premiere

Los Angeles Industrial Techno Project Cruel Kiss Debuts Video for “Dreamscape”

Explosive Los Angeles industrial techno project Cruel Kiss (aka Dustin Hollenbeck) is supercharged with driving percussion, driving techno, and screeching synths in the vein of NIN, Suicide, and Skinny Puppy. Today marks the debut of a new lo-fi video for their new single and video, “Dreamscape.”

Dreamscape is what the title describes: it delves into a territory of sound heavily influenced by human emotion, touch and desire. As with all of Hollenbeck’s work, the track operates as a veritable exorcism ritual for expelling pain and debilitating emotions; giving way to deeper compassion.

“Dreamscape is inspired by a nightmare,” says Hollenbeck. “The making of the song was an actual nightmare. I would take stabs at it and it just sat and waited years for me to finalize and correct technical mistakes. I never thought of it as a single but I never gave up on it. and now it’s this whole piece that I feel is an honest representation of everything I’m currently capable of.”

Dreamscape’s visuals embody the duality of introspection and movement, Hollenbeck says. “It’s a display of compartmentalized emotion dynamically building into an outlet of human reaction.” Multimedia visual artist Phoenix Oslavio directed the accompanying clip, using an analogue video synthesizer.  Much of the video was filmed in the arts district of Los Angeles, including the “LA River,” during the removal of giant pieces of the 6th Street Bridge after its long renovation process. It also features live performance footage from Cruel’s debut set at Catch One during Manufactured in Los Angeles Fest.

Watch below:

Cruel Kiss is set to debut their 5-song debut EP “Rose is a Weapon” via Enchaîné Mode in February. The physical release will be a 30 minute video on VHS including three music videos and other themed hypervisuals set to the other tracks. Cruel Kiss will continue creating an immersive community with high energy live shows.

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