Weird bands are making some badass high-tech, lo-fi impressionistic videos in Austin right now, and we are eating this stuff up. Latest in the line of Austin’s most experimental artists to embrace abstract bizarro tech-created imagery for the visual representations of their music, a list that’s recently included acts like Shmu and Rikroshi, are Deli-favorite doom sirens Troller.
The video in question is for the mightily-named and overwhelmingly pretty track “Storm Maker” from Troller’s recent and sublime Graphic, and both it and the song itself are a departure, at least in surface aesthetics, from the majority of Troller’s typically dark and heavy oeuvre. Here Troller applies their tremendous (in the true sense of the word) musical approach to being also gorgeous- the track is edgy, harmonic, modern, and outright heartbreakingly pretty. The subject matter is the typically heady and emotionally complex stuff you get with Troller (and, really, most all Holodeck Records acts), with no small amount of weltschmerz present, but as opposed to the overwhelming doom and crushing crescendos of their standard songs, “Storm Maker” is both audially and visually an assault of gorgeousness.
A large part of that in the song itself can be attributed to singer and deathbass maven Amber Star-Goers’ thrillingly dynamic vocals, which are presented here in a manner that gives you a chance to hear her voice clearly and at its most skillfully dynamic. The woman hits notes in the crescendo that are shocking in their power and goosebumps-inducing, and this track is in one way a hell of an argument that Star-Goers’ has the best command of her range in all of Austin music. Instrumentalists Adam Jones and Justin Star-Goers provide a slow, but driving drum pad-laced aural structure over which Amber’s voice plays that is equally as entrancing and darkly lovely.
Troller is making Lord of the Rings-level epic fantasy music right now, but done by the hippest, smartest people you know, as if they weren’t Austinite humans but the most truly metal avant garde band of dark elves and orcs ever to throw noise across the multiverse. The “Storm Maker” video here is perfectly constructed to match the music- a highly abstract and impressionistic take that’s so very modern that it has that rare intelligent retro look at 80s and 90s computer culture that is only just now getting its due through burning edge artists like Macintosh Plus and PC Music, and now Troller. The song’s a long’n’ (Troller ain’t afeared of nothin’), and it is thoroughly worth taking in as a whole at 1080p, preferably on some damn good headphones or a system worthy of the bigness of this sound and video.
Take a look below, check out the whole Graphic album here, and we’ll leave you with this insightful Troller quote from the “Storm Maker” video premiere a la FADER:
“Lyrically, this song is about the cycle of chaos and order in life. When circumstances force you to re-evaluate and humble yourself, there is a somber process of accepting your own limitations. These self-reflective moments usually teach valuable lessons to better manage the moments when you actually are in control. It’s the duality of being a Storm Watcher and a Storm Maker.”
