Recording as Skinshape, ex-Palace bassist Will Dorey has nurtured a fascination for sounds that don’t adhere to any specific musical framework. His music is a kaleidoscope of crisscrossing genres and rhythmic detours, resulting in a loping construct of influences which cohere despite their disparate origins. At times recalling the work of Tame Impala, Khruangbin, and Madlib, his past albums are filled the kind of warm and welcoming explorations that can only occur when vintage analog equipment is employed by someone supremely confident in their abilities to coax radiant rhythms from their wired tangles. Psych, funk, indie rock, pop — all these genres are bent and adapted to fit his meticulous post-genre perspective.
On new single, “Theme for Lazarus”, he wanders through mischievous pop landscapes, filled with orchestral plucks, wobbly percussive beats, wordless vocalizations, and slivers of wiry guitar lines. The track develops and maintains a groove that is hard to pin down, sashaying from side to side, never losing its momentum and offering multiple ways into its opaque depths — it find purpose in this gauzy architecture, crafting a series of moments in which the music gives itself over fully to the whims of Dorey’s creativites.
Directed and animated by Kendra Morris, the video for the song uses collage animation in the vein of Lewis Klahr or Terry Gilliam to build an oddly mesmeric backdrop onto which the music can be offered without restriction. The visuals are disquieting at times but also beautiful in their own fragmentary way, adding to the emotional volatility of the sounds Dorey has so carefully wrought.
Watch the video below.
