Deep tan are the exciting new group on the block in post-punk Hackney, London. Camelot sees french front-woman Wafah, with Celeste and Lucy in the rhythm section, step out from their more indie-sounding roots in debut song Air into a colder and stripped back sonic atmosphere. Released ahead of the band's Debut EP creeping speedwells out on the 4th June, the video is a glimpse of what is to come.
Set in a flat, but also in ‘Camelot’ a romantic fictional ancient city, made famous by the legend of King Arthur, the title camelot might smirk at how distant our memory of reckless nights feels now. The song centres on downing a drink- revisited and left overflowing throughout the video, as "possessed deep tan celebrate like it’s the end of the world." The chorus phrase "second last night in Camelot" explains the fictionalised group is drowning their sorrows in a big 'sesh' to forget they are soon to be without a flat in "48 hours". Horror references are abundant in the glazed white eyes of the jerking band, with their writhing guitar riff and wonderfully punk near-wailed vocals of "second last night". The video brings to mind the jerking cuts in Ingmar Bergman's 1966 horror Persona. Whilst the video's similarly bleached white and inky black tones conjure a general sense of the genre, that remains glamorous. Specifically, the blind-folded band-members, spinning suspended bag and visitor lurking under a sheet evoke the surrealist painter René Magritte's The Lovers - as noticed by my in-house horror expert Queenie Qureshi-Wales. This nod, whether intentional or not, to The Lovers reminds us not only have socialising and parting been missed, but so have embraces this year.
Deep tan come across as a bit of a sceptical bunch in their Loud and Quiet interview with their frequent references to star signs, and camelot's video raises the mystic bar to possession. The film's director, Chino Moya, (St Vincent, Years & Years), explains: “This is a lockdown, homemade no-budget video made around the idea of supernatural forces possessing deep tan. Probably in hindsight, we will look back at it and we will realise that the idea of invisible forces possessing and controlling us while we were confined in some small space was not that far from our reality during the period when we shot the video.” On a lighter note, the fish-head motif in the video recalls the phrase "drinking like a fish" as Wafah delivers "drink another one, pour another one", as well as fitting the eerie tone of this stylishly macabre video. Minimalist and disorientating, the video partners the track well adding a darker edge to a lively and punched 2-minutes of song. We are excited to tell you about what is next to come.
Deep tan come across as a bit of a sceptical bunch in their Loud and Quiet interview with their frequent references to star signs, and camelot's video raises the mystic bar to possession. The film's director, Chino Moya, (St Vincent, Years & Years), explains: “This is a lockdown, homemade no-budget video made around the idea of supernatural forces possessing deep tan. Probably in hindsight, we will look back at it and we will realise that the idea of invisible forces possessing and controlling us while we were confined in some small space was not that far from our reality during the period when we shot the video.” On a lighter note, the fish-head motif in the video recalls the phrase "drinking like a fish" as Wafah delivers "drink another one, pour another one", as well as fitting the eerie tone of this stylishly macabre video. Minimalist and disorientating, the video partners the track well adding a darker edge to a lively and punched 2-minutes of song. We are excited to tell you about what is next to come.
