The boundaries of reality’s comforts are tested in the new video from Lousville, KY trio, Murals. The single, “Violet City Lantern”, is the band’s first release for Fire Talk, taken from the forthcoming, but unannounced, record of the same name, due out early 2016. Quavering, cautious guitar pulsates forward, as though checking the ground for safe footing, while a warm bass tiptoes just beneath the surface. Ghosted whispering vocals soothe the setting in low tones, turning into wonderful falsetto in the chorus. An elated string sound comes into the scene with a full delay effect, complementing the whimsical nature of the visuals, and adding a certain timelessness to the sound.
The video itself, directed by the band themselves, and shot, edited and co-designed by Josh Minogue, contains a series of subtle distractions, or rather, epiphanies, that gently nudges the three band members out of their comfort zones and into something euphorically new. What begins with the unassuming band playing acoustic instruments and drinking tea in a warmly lit room, decoratively equivalent to the perfectly cozy feel of a vintage shop, is suddenly disrupted by the sudden appearance of glowing purple stones all over the floor. Upon their discovery, the reality of the room is distorted more and more, with psychedelic pink smoke bellowing out of their mouths, and the climactic of a neon glow through a hole in a painting on the wall. A break in the music amplifies the suspense of what lies beyond, and the band subsequently punches through the painting, and the entire wall, to discover an entirely new room, or world, bathed in the pink smoke of their weird experience.
