Psychedelic folk band Halasan Bazar currently resides in Copenhagen, Denmark. But their origins lay much further back in time and in a far different environment. Channeling the psych-pop and folk movements that came funneling out of California – and San Francisco in particular — in the mid-60’s, Halasan Bazar wrap cosmic folk filaments around strands of dense, keyboard-drenched psychedelia. Drawing out reverberating melodies and vocal harmonies that wouldn’t seem out of place during the Summer of Love, the band touches on the more ethereal and surreal aspects of the genres within which they operate.
Nowhere is this more evident than in their latest video for “Am I Blind,” which is for a track taken from their latest album, Space Junk (out now on Crash Symbols). Filtering acoustic guitar strums and transparent lines of shimmering keyboards against singer Fredrik Eckhoff’s eccentric (though never distracting) vocals, the video details the tragic traffic accidents that befall a group of bicycling simians – though these are more the Planet of the Apes– type than any pitiable laboratory experiment. Directed by Halasan Bazar drummer Henry the Rabbit, who has also released music under his own musical pseudonym, the video is presented as archival footage, with sepia-tinged filters and a hazy nostalgia that permeates everything. And just look at those masks and tell me that you aren’t going to be seeing them in a nightmare soon, I dare you. Check out the video below.
