By Charlie Maybee
Boston based psychedelic punk trio, The Big Sway, have returned with a brand-new song titled “Almost Home” with a music video to boot. It acts as the first single off their forthcoming second LP and visual album We Made This For You, which is slated for release in Summer 2022.
Using a mix of video and stop-motion, this is a music video that acts as an abstract, and at times unsettling collage of two different characters riding around in car with their hula dancer bobblehead figure: two prosthetic-clad demon figures who look roughly like a red mouse with ferocious teeth and a goblin with ram horns on its head. With an underlying visual layer of a camera quickly scanning map and the punk music in the background, it gives off a frantic energy that will instantly get your heart rate up.
After cruising around for a while, they come to rest in a house that could be their home or an Airbnb, and we’re treated to a series of photos from the duo’s travels to places like EPCOT at Disney World and the cityscape of New York City. There’s no telling for whether this is their “home” or just a place to stay for the night, but the music makes a big shift to a more melodic and calm ambience which confirms, at the very least, a feeling of contentment.
It’s a wild ride from top to bottom of this video, and the music manages a variety of energy levels and textures that make it feel like a giant lurch into the unknown. It strikes a bizarre balance being, at once, both unsettling yet oddly charming, It’s the thoughtful use of stop-motion paired with the musical composition that really drives these feelings that would typically stand in contrast of each other – but here, they coexist as something wild and wonderful.
“Almost Home” are available on major streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and BandCamp. The official music video is also available on YouTube, and the song is available on the Alchemical Records Multi-Genre Mixture playlist on Spotify and YouTube.
Charlie Maybee is a dancer, musician, educator, and writer based in Charleston, South Carolina who currently teaches with the Dance Program at the College of Charleston. His primary work as an artist is with his performing collective, Polymath Performance Project, through which he makes interdisciplinary performance art that centers tap dance as the primary medium of expression and research. He also currently plays rhythm guitar for the Charleston-based punk band, Anergy, and releases music as a solo artist under the name Nox Eterna.
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Alchemical Records is a Washington, D.C. based music publication. We cover the Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Richmond, VA metro area music scenes, including band interviews, articles about your favorite musicians, new music and concert dates.
