Videos

Avant-pop duo Strange Flesh defy societal standards in experimental single + video ‘Very’

• 19th Jul 2023

British/American duo Strange Flesh, previously known as The Casual Sexists, have returned with their brand new single and video ‘Very’, due to drop 14th July 2023 via House Of Zed.

Their new single ‘Very’ was built from drums and voice upwards. Varrick, in her trademark sprechgesang style, freestyled many of the lyrics over ‘Very’’s robotic beat. The track includes birdsong, the pop of cans opening, and the gurgle of Varrick and Ed’s kitchen sink, maintaining the avant-pop couple’s knack of incorporating rogue sound palate’s into their artistry. Inspired by the likes of COBRAH, Coucou Chloe, Pet Shop Boys and Shygirl, Strange Flesh maintain that the single highlights their gleeful defiance of societal standards and the pressure to achieve.

Speaking of their new single, the duo explained: “Taking aim at societal standards as to how a life ‘ought’ to be lived, ‘Very’ is the anthem of a woman on her own deliciously precarious path: the soundtrack to beloved but ill-paying employment, discount decadence, no children, and a healthy disregard for the future.”

The accompanying music video, directed by London’s Jonathan Bower, eschews a live action narrative this time around in favour of a more abstract motif. Strange Flesh wanted a visual that reflected the chaotic yet propulsive inner landscape of ‘Very’’s protagonist.

Based in Brooklyn and comprised of married couple Varrick and Ed Zed, Strange Flesh was forged during summer 2020 as a way to process the profound strangeness of that first fateful year of COVID, eventually taking full shape late 2022 with the release of their disquieting dub pop single, ‘Croydon Fox’.

Strung out on an unhealthy diet of hyperpop, angular punk, dancehall, dub and various forms of bass music, Strange Flesh craft fractured pop music out of drums, grubby synths, animal calls and the myriad peculiarities of human life. Whether singing of social alienation, moral panic or our friend the urban rat, a dark but wry humour is never far from the surface of Strange Flesh’s oeuvre – all fuel for their technicolour assault on the dance floor.

Strange Flesh’s forthcoming single ‘Very’, alongside the accompanying music video, are both due for release 14th July 2023 via House Of Zed.