We are very proud to premiere the new video for the track ‘To Forget’ from the über cool Italian band God in a Black Suit (GIABS). GIABS are an essential element of that massive wave of psych, new wave and shoegaze bands that flourish in Italy and that have been enthusiastically and proudly covered by Backseat Mafia over the past decade: a movement that is only growing stronger.
GIABS recently released their second album ‘Thresholds’, an album filled with crystalline guitars and deep enigmatic vocals, statuesque and powerful. The track ‘To Forget’ coasts on an ambulant bass and a driving powerful force given impetus by Matteo Demma’s dramatic theatrical vocals – Bowie-esque in their tenor and delivery – with a synth contrail in the distance. Powerful and anthemic, it has within its genetic coding an Arctic eighties iciness from Joy Division, The Psychedelic Furs, The Mission and Magazine with a touch of more contemporary acts like Editors or Interpol. And yet the end product is totally unique and distinct, combining soaring melodies with an insouciant swagger.
The lyrics poetically capture a certain element of tristesse and longing, romantic and melancholic:
By now I’ve forgotten your scent
I learnt to live without your presence
I’ve forgotten your smile the times when you said things were good
I’ve forgotten all the affection from you
The support you gave me
Now, I’m fragile I know
I wish I had the time for more happiness
The track is lifted into the stratosphere by a soaring, melodic chorus that thrills and sets the pulse racing.
The new video captures the sense of urgency and restless movement in the track: starting with an introductory filtered orange background and a blurred TV screen before a series of enigmatic luscious shots enter, with mysterious shadows filtering across the screen. There is a sixties faded tint to the production, rich textured shots indoors in a house filled with mementos and furniture. The shadows morph into reality: lovers captured in a dream embrace, poignant and statuesque. The filtered light and gentle movements of the lovers add a romantic blush to a beautifully filmed video. The band eloquently says of the themes behind the video:
Empty spaces that tell a story. Corridors once walked, rooms that were once inhabited and now host the echoes of memories. On the walls, fleeting shadows testify to the tales of two people now lost, drifting apart in their everyday lives. Forgetting is something fortuitous or unexpected very often, but it happens that we want to do it on purpose when we want to lose the memory of a circumstance or someone. It is not easy at all, because almost nothing prevents us from remembering, while a lot prevents us from forgetting. The harder you try to forget, the more you are forced to remember. And so those shadows on the walls come to life and become vivid memories of a hug, a kiss, a dance with that person who was our life and who is now no longer.
Forgetting intentionally is painful, because that will easily turns into an even more vivid memory, especially when the suffering arises from the memory of a kindness, of a sweetness of which we want to lose the traces when it ceases to be. And so forgetting becomes a threshold to cross, a step towards the darkness for an emotion from which we feel we must detach ourselves to continue along the path.
A beautiful moving portrait of nostalgia and the vivid impact of memory:
It’s a fittingly an achingly beautiful accompaniment to a gorgeous track.
‘To Forget’ can be found on ‘Thresholds’, released in May this year, and well worth a listen for more of the same style of goth-tinged music that positively shimmers and sparkles:
God in a Black Suit are:
Annalisa Laterza – Bass
Bruno Pantone – Guitars
Gianluca Natrella – Drums
Matteo Demma – Vocals
Pietro De Ruggieri – Synth, Keyboards
