Toronto nu-gaze outfit Rituals announces a new single and video for Tangles. This ethereal number drifts through the mind like a half-remembered dream, a shimmering echo of dream pop luminaries like Slowdive, Catherine Wheel, and The Veldt. Guitars wail like sirens swallowed by fog, synths shimmer like neon reflections in rain, and drums throb with a slow, hypnotic urgency. Vocals float, detached yet aching, lost in the static. The song rises and recedes, a tide of sound both weightless and heavy with longing; grounded and untethered. Psychedelic, shoegaze-drenched, and thick with feeling, Tangles is a current you step into and surrender to, a moment suspended in time.
The video shows a carnival humming with exuberant life, a golden swirl of blinking lights, adorable alpacas, laughter spilling into the night air, the scent of spun sugar and fried dough thick as memory. Two figures drift through the fairground—lovers or strangers, past or present—clutching hands, stealing glances, riding the dizzy heights of a Ferris wheel as the world spins below. Sweet nothings whispered between mouthfuls of cotton candy, a stuffed prize won and held close, the kind of night meant to last forever.
But beneath the carousel glow, something lingers….uncertainty, illusion, a question that refuses to be answered. Are these stolen moments truth, or are they stitched together from longing? Is this a flicker of what was, what could be, or what never was at all? The screen blurs, time folds. Are they dreaming their happiness, conjuring it through sheer will? Or is this a love already lost, replaying itself in the fading light?
No matter what, sometimes we just gotta win our own Curious George.
Watch “Tangles” below:
“For the longest time I’ve wanted to make a video at the CNE,” says Seward, who directed the video. “The backdrop of the neon lights and chaos has such a romantic vibe. Theres a sombreness to the chaos that I wanted to explore. I wanted to bring that together with the sound of Tangles. We had to shoot this in a very specific way. It was very run and gun. But also had to plan out the shots with lots of flexibility just incase we didn’t get the chance to get them and have a plan B, C or D. For example, I was looking at the schedule and maps of the grounds of the CNE for the day we were shooting, and had planned the dance scene to be at the silent rave. But when we arrived the Rave was cancelled, for some reason. So we pivoted to the live band at the casino. Which also really works, I think!”
Listen to Tangles at the link below and order the song here.
Rituals first flickered to life in 2009, a quiet storm brewing in the dim solitude of Adam Seward’s small room, where shoegaze swayed and post-punk simmered. He built the sound in isolation, but soon others gravitated toward its pull, shaping raw energy into two releases—Rituals (2010) and Mesmerized (2012). Then came silence. In 2014, Seward slipped into filmmaking, leaving music to smolder in the quiet, a half-lit ember waiting for air. A decade passed. By 2023, Rituals reemerged, no longer a solitary vision but a collective force, joined by Phil Wilson, Chris Riel, and Alistair Blundale.
RITUALS have shared the stage with Mac DeMarco, Metz, Austra, A Place to Bury Strangers, and more. Their run included SXSW 2012 and extensive shows across NYC, Montreal, and Southern Ontario before Adam took a hiatus to pursue filmmaking.
Catch RITUALS live in Ontario:
• Feb 27 – Ted’s Collision (w/ Low Kites)
• March 19 – Houndstooth (w/ Forming)
• May 3- Hamilton (w/SUV)
• May 10-Baby G (TBD)
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