NYC Post-punk project Flynt, the most recent creative outlet for multi-instrumentalist Martin Isenberg, unveils the video for “Flynt Pop”, the spellbinding first single from the debut EP Introducing Flynt.
After an experimental intro of otherworldly sound design, the song transitions into a brooding whirl of bass, guitar, and soft vocals, all drenched in warm reverb, effectively fusing together a nostalgic melange of post-punk, indie pop, and shoegaze sounds. Strangely, this all feels very authentic to the stuff you would hear on college radio during the late 80s, even more so than many of the bands of the early 2000s post-punk revival.
Perhaps, either incidentally, or by design, this sound is captured due to Isenberg’s approach to “assembling post-industrial harmonies stratified on an eerie wavelength”, and also taking inspiration from music from the 1960s avant-garde as a starting point.
Watch the video for ‘Flynt Pop”, below:
“I wrote Flynt Pop in a dimly lit wood-paneled basement room in Eagle Rock, CA during the fall of 2018,” explains Isenberg, “I had recently stumbled on Henry Flynt after reading about Fluxus and the anti-art movement in the 1960s. “You are my Everlovin’” became a regular soundtrack for me and I ended up picking up my violin for the first time in a while as a result.
What started as an attempt to make long-form meditative and ethereal music soon shifted drastically when I started messing with drum machines I had sampled and digitized. The melody that developed was dictated by harmonic violin fragments I recorded through guitar pedals and the remaining structure quickly fell into place.
Over the next few weeks lyrics followed suit. Initially, I thought I was writing about attraction to chaos but it became clearer to me that at its core I was writing about desire and compulsion as a remedy to loneliness and alienation. Regardless of consequences, the answer to the question “Do you want it?” (read: drinking, drugs, a relationship you know is bad for you) always seemed to be “Yes” for me at that time.
Live drums and guitar overdubs happened later at my friend Phil Hartunian’s studio in Glendale, CA with the assistance of drummer Cameron Wisch who played along with the drum patterns I had drawn in with robotic precision.”
Introducing Flynt is out on February 1st, 2022, via Dero Arcade.