Lontalius - Walk Me Home

In a society dedicated to reducing the gap between want and delivery, it was inevitable that there would be a backlash against the last thirty years' tsunami of instant gratification. There have been many strands to this backlash covering music, fashion, design and writing to name just a few. What is now the "hipster" aesthetic is a coagulation of these strands. The aesthetic in itself has created a banality of its own, with, for example, "retro", and "irony" now often existing for their own sake, without context. It has in some cases become almost comic. But there was a reason for all of this. As we lose the ability to be "present", we crave being in touch with those qualities of life that have been waylaid. And in artists like Lontalius (Eddie Johnston) we witness our barren consumer-technological fabric being used as a platform from which to record simple, genuine thoughts and feelings. Eddie has described his music as "sitting in your bedroom feeling sad about nothing in particular". Granted it could be taken as that superficially, but there is more to it. This sounds like our youth trying to survive with soul intact in a frantic, messy, noisy electronic world. "Walk Me Home" as it is heard here is not purchasable, and is actually a collaboration with Canadian producer Ryan Hemsworth from his new EP, "Alone For The First Time". Ryan's interpretation is completely different, but still very good. This version, with raw vocals, surging Casiotone textures and beautiful counterpoint, is just stunning. And the video from Arty Films is brilliantly sympathetic. With wonderful editing (the neon arrows syncing with the Casiotone at 0:30!) and colouring, the video is also notable for the number of quality shots squeezed out of a suburban convenience store. Arty Films is Arty Papageorgiou, a Wellington-based writer/director who clearly has an eye for beauty where others don't initially see it. I have provided a link to his Tumblr site below. Lontalius has a new album coming in 2015, from which the first single is "Light Shines Through Dust" (linked below), in my opinion a candidate for New Zealand song of 2014. The sign of a good songwriter is a song's genre-immunity. Eddie's songs have that. There is also something of the "Thom Yorke" here. It is still early days, but Eddie Johnston is promising to be one of the greats.

https://soundcloud.com/lontalius-official/light-shines-through-dust/s-7tc6F

http://artyfilms.tumblr.com/

Lontalius - Walk Me Home (Convenience Store Performance)