The solo project of Australian Tom Crandles, Prudence occupies the space between electric and ethereal, making songs that blend an ominous technological murk with transcendental brightness. Debut release Major Tom, which is out at the end of April on Forged Artifacts, makes this clear, weaving an off-kilter vision that could be a dream or simulation, the only clear fact that the songs are not quite of our world.
We’re delighted to share a video for the album’s lead single, ‘Euphoria’, a few weeks ahead of release. A snaking track pitched on the no man’s land between dream pop and post-punk, the single’s languid haze belies an undercurrent altogether more insistent, a driving rhythm at the heart of the track upon which Crandles’ vocals surf, barely moving. A sense of tension develops, a friction between conflicting moods and tempos that disrupts even the glossy rhythms of the track’s chorus, even slinky movement hiding something unchoreographed, near paroxysmal.
This discrepancy lends a curious, uneasy edge, a volatility hidden beneath the easy facade that unnerves and delights in equal measure. It is fitting then that the video, directed by McLean Stephenson, has a distinctly Lynchian vibe, the footage governed by a logic that hovers just out of view. The result is hypnotic and vaguely bizarre, the sort of oblique eccentricity that plays out behind locked doors and blank faces, always threatening to show itself and drag you in.
Major Tom is out on the 26th April via Forged Artifacts and you can pre-order it now.
