Live Review: Fascinator is 'Drenched Out' in his latest clip
Fascinator taps into something stranger about the term 'wanderlust' on the expansive, idiosyncratic visuals for his new single, 'Drenched Out'
‘Wanderlust’ is a term that often goes overused and misunderstood. On the visuals for ‘Drenched Out’, the latest single off his sophomore studio album, Water Signs, New York via Australia psych-dance musician Fascinator taps into something inherently strange about the phenomenon. An atmospheric, experimental journey traversing multiple sonic terrains, Fascinator’s Water Signs becomes a beguiling soundtrack for the sensation of wanderlust and the impulse for constant adventure inspired by his own nomadic, ex-pat existence.
Appropriately, therefore, the clip for ‘Drenched Out’ gives a visual representation that’s every bit as expansive and odd-ball as the world of Fascinator’s album as a whole, but also the feelings that inspire and colour the record. “They told me I could be the salty ocean floor / Drenched out from Asia to West Africa,” Fascinator sings on the track’s chorus. It’s a slightly nonsensical line, but beneath the veneer of its idiosyncratic expression it’s also understandably human, a large part of which has to do with how Fascinator’s stretched-out delivery and wilting melody makes you believe in it.
The self-directed visuals take in the picturesque surroundings of Fascinator’s adopted American homeland, including scenes of Montauk, Williamsburg, Brooklyn and the Californian desert. On the panoramic ocean shots that open the clip, Fascinator explains that “we had planned to build a raft out of junk and beach debris in Montauk, but happened upon a piece of decking by the water where we were shooting. We loaded the base with life jackets so it didn’t sink. It might not look it, but it was bloody freezing.”
Plug into the latest music with our FREE weekly newsletter
Opening with widescreen synth pads, we find Fascinator as a castaway, adrift in various hypnotic drone shots. As the track progresses, he adds layers of squelching synths and pulsating bass into the fold, the clip’s visuals swirling around and overlaying one another in an increasingly rapid fashion as ‘Drenched Out’ steadily builds to a soaring, ascending guitar line that reaches impossibly higher and higher into an exalted bliss. At this point in the visuals, Fascinator mimics the guitar solo by playing it on some… glasses of water? You’d expect nothing less from him.
Fascinator's Water Sign is out now.
IMAGE: Brendan Burke
SEE MORE:
More From Our Network
