We are very proud to provide you with a first listen (and viewing) of the video for Scorpion Tea‘s new tack ‘They’re Thriving Without Us’. Scorpion Tea is the creation of former Psychic TV co-founder Edley ODowd and the connection can be seen in the gothic cloaked darkness of the track.
Scorpion Tea was brewed when after taking time to grieve the death of cultural icon and longtime collaborator Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, ODowd journeyed internationally to reconnect with songwriter Christian Cruz, bass player Fern Puma, and lyricist Anthony Diaz to create a new experimental/death rock project. The result, Scorpion Tea, described by Edley as a band of monsters playing broken instruments.
‘They’re Thriving Without Us’ looms like a thunderstorm about to break. A distant droning floats in the ether, ominous and haunting, while the vocals chant a mantra that repeats, echoing and ghostly. Clattering percussion beats like thunder under the surface. The overall effect is something monastic, sober and dark, utterly cathartic.
The track was a little different from the material forming on their forthcoming self-titled album. Singer Diaz says of the song:
It wasn’t until just prior to our trip to LA to record the album that Edley told us that he had ‘fallen in love’ with the orphaned demo track. At a complete loss as to how to proceed, I simply cued up the track and pressed record. What came forth was unexpected, and the song became, to me, the ‘lonely little petunia in an onion patch,’
The video for ‘They’re Thriving Without Us’ illustrates the story of a person walking away from everything, through an endless canopy of dead trees. Using the wilderness of western New Jersey as a backdrop, the video is rife with psychedelic misdirection. Edley ODowd plays the role of the mask, carefully and slowly demonstrating emotional pain through his movements, while Diaz and Cruz follow suit with their ghostly contortions. It’s foreboding and edgy, enigmatic and immersive:
‘They’re Thriving Without Us’ is out on Friday, 18 August 2023 and will available through all the usual download and streaming sites.
