With the duo’s creative take on experimental electronic music forged and honed within NYC basements being equally inspired by darkwave and EBM, Amiture lands somewhere between the innovative sound design of Water From Your Eyes and the icy post-punk of Cold Cave. “Dirty,” the latest single from their forthcoming album Mother Engine, takes things in a no-wavier direction, with Jack Whitescarver’s vocals quavering on the verge of sounding like Jamie Stewart—among a few other, less expected influences.
“In a way, this song is our most indebted to early hip-hop production on the album because of its melodic relationships,” Whitescarver shares. “Each melody, guitar, bass, vocal, etc. is in a different key. This way we were able to find a darker environment that reflects the textures and soundscapes that older sampling technology had. Different samples in ‘Dirty’ fit together regardless of their tuning, creating a cacophony of anxious gestures that somehow become a glittery dance track.”
Much like the song itself, the video (directed by Whitescarver alongside bandmate Coco Goupil) feels rooted in the turn-of-the-millennium New York of Hal Hartley’s Book of Life while leaning into the paranoia inherent in our constant state of surveillance as its primary focus. “I thought it was interesting to think about how you would behave if privacy was no longer a clear-cut idea,” Whitescarver adds. “The video intercuts surveillance-type video of New York City streets and people with more intimate interior scenes and even scenes of people making out. ‘Dirty’ is about remembering a time when sex and love were valuable. If you know someone is watching you, maybe that estranges you further from that, maybe it makes it more so.”
Check it out below. Mother Engine out February 9 via Dots Per Inch—you can pre-order it here.
