Satellītes’ “Love & Disaster”

Much like what fills the screen after popping a dusty old VHS tape into the VCR after years of it sitting on the shelf, the music video for Satellītes’ “Love & Disaster” opens in chaotic noise joined with a visually distressing, worn colorization that contrasts significantly with the content of its soundtrack – a suave, R&B groove meshed with a sumptuously dark pop melody that is as expressive of the mood in the music as the lyrics themselves are. Jasmine Bleile, the single creative mind behind Satellītes, stares straight into the camera against a strobing red and blue backdrop, and though there’s not a lot of action to absorb in these shots, they’re optically stimulating and married to an engaging beast of a beat.

 

 

The video takes on a neo-noir quality as we depart from the first chorus and find Bleile making herself over before a shadow-covered mirror. The music is quite a distracting element, so much so that I found my attention drifting from the on-screen images during this particular portion of the song. “Love & Disaster” is a very cerebral composition to begin with, and there’s a case to be made that Satellītes’ video for the track adds to the experimental tone of its music quite significantly. There’s never a doubt as to what the real focus of this piece is, and while a lot of this act’s peers in America and Europe have been content to pile on the frills in situations like this one, Bleile takes the opposite approach here, keeps things relatively simple and subsequently produces a really tuneful and urbane product as a result.

As Bleile dances in surreal synchronicity with the gravity-altering groove of the drums, the James Correa-directed video for “Love & Disaster” comes to a conclusion, leaving behind only the reverberating rhythm of its swinging percussive wallop. Satellītes has been attracting some credible buzz from across the underground this season, and this track from the debut album of the same name certainly captures the essence of the solo project’s experimental aesthetic better than anything else on the record does (in my opinion, at least). “Love & Disaster” is a soulful fire that’s hard to put out once it’s been started, and it’s an excellent way for listeners to get to know this enticing new sound from Jasmine Bleile.

Mindy McCall