Primitive Motion pull varied sounds from a minimal set-up. After several small batch releases over the last few years, the duo has stepped up with their first full length on Bedroom Suck. The keyboards sound like someone drug them around by the power chord and now the wiring is held together with duct tape. The vocals are spirits trapped in a well, bouncing up the dark stone from out of sight. A knob-twist here, a knob-twist there, and these vocal cascades morph into subconscious mumbles and cries. The songs are mostly single-cycle epics, all 80s vibrato synth steeped in an opium dream.
But Worlds Floating By is not formless sprawl. “Skyline” is a genuine butt-shaker with its distorted octave key riff, snare march, and Nico-soft coos. This is a city song to strut to and make the streetlights blur together. “Home of the Lone Coast” is a tantric mantra called out from atop a mountain to waft around a Walkman beat that wears sunglasses at night. “Colours” (they’re Aussies) is a melting-film projection with angel-gurgled layers that slowly shifts your perspective around wordless praise.
Primitive Motion makes immersive psych pop that removes your sense of time but still keeps a beat.
Primitive Motion – Skyline from BSR on Vimeo.
Primitive Motion – Colours from BSR on Vimeo.