Since two releases in 2015, Red Sea have popped up for performances sparsely, making the band seem mostly quiescent. However, appearances, or lack thereof, are not always what they seem. In an unexpected turn, Atlanta’s art rock anomalies have gone down an unlikely path: electronic. And, for a first music video, the clubby composition of “Love is Blind” reaches colossal levels of abstraction that remains true for a group that touches everything with an absurdist yet emotive dissonance.
Although the band’s lineup remains much the same—Mick Mayer (bass, vocals), Patrick Mayer (percussion, vocals), Stephen Luscre (guitar), and Kyle Sherrill (guitar, vocals)—“Love is Blind” points to a definitively different direction for the group. Produced and mixed by Patrick Canaday, Red Sea’s incorporation of R&B flairs finds itself in a more structured pop framework than the discordance and crescendos once at focus. Even then, the single does not stray from the band’s longstanding devotion to harmonies and flirtations with odd time signatures. Jazz and prog elements have always snuck into their work, and are now currently enhanced live with keyboards, midi pickups and drum triggers, allowing the group to switch between sounds seamlessly.
What at first seems to be the typical music video—a club performance with a dancing crowd—becomes cloaked in BDSM, sunshine and kittens, cowboys and beatniks, a mystery Daddy, and a tale of vision (literally). With phenomenal work from Funguh Productions, Red Sea explains this narrative as “a psycho-spiritual journey following a thief through a broken timeline of heartbreak, spy hunting and futuristic inter-dimensional technology.”
Left to interpretation, the lyrics and plot both intertwine with an overall warning to take care of what we wish for or attempt to manifest. Perhaps in the exclusivity and yearning to obtain happiness through means of illusion, the characters enter alternate realities through unnatural means, shrouded in many possible arching philosophies. Whatever the vision behind the surrealist vignette, Red Sea’s musical evolution is revealing itself. It’s a most a welcome return, wrapped in a perplexing parable that is both visually stunning and infectiously catchy.
Red Sea performs tomorrow night, Aug. 28, at 529 alongside Freak Heat Waves, Shiso, Kristian North, and Rug. Doors open at 9 p.m. Admission is $8. 21+ to enter.
More Info
Web: redseamusic.com
Bandcamp: redsea.bandcamp.com
Facebook: @redseamusicatl
Instagram: @redseamobileapp
Twitter: @redseamusic