Photo by Dan Monick

On their swan song as Abe Vigoda with 2010’s Crush, formidable members vocalist and guitarist Michael Vidal and guitarist Juan Velasquez were part of something greater in putting the Los Angeles noise-pop band onto something really outside everything else by transcending spiritual plains of post-punk, art pop, and cold wave in darkly amorous ways. For that, any signs of life in their absence from the scene in the 13 years proceeding it have been truly missed. That is, up until now. “Serenity’s Pit”, the second single from Romantic Music — Vidal and Valesquez’s debut album from their new band, Cupid & Psyche — doubles as a listen which fills in possible blank pages as to what might have been had their former outlet stayed alive, but also acknowledges a new creative chapter for the two. Intimacy in the dark remains an omnipresent hue in their sonic mood board as hard beat synthetic drums and a dense friction between that of singed guitars and the reflection pools rippling out from them, and subsequently, Vidal’s head, transmit a deeper spiritual desire before escaping his view entirely. “I’m so powerless / Show me your memory / So I won’t forget.” This vision is a realm unknown, and yet, touches moments past familiar. Grasping the elusive and the illusion is its own sacred space.

Directed by: Michael Vidal

Cupid & Psyche’s Romantic Music will be released September 22nd on Felte Records.