Watch: PHORK “Contact”

The LA producer PHORK will release his High End LP via NNA Tapes on June 10th, and today we take a look at his new video for “Contact“. High End will be Neal Reinalda‘s third long-player for the label, following up on 2012’s Discrepancies and 2013’s Entertainment; and it finds the artist continuing to hone his minimalist, and meticulous techno style. Reinalda employs a brilliantly sparse sonic palette constructed from field recordings and electronically generated sounds, and grounding them in stripped back, four to the floor rhythms, he leaves his compositions uncluttered and “mechanical” in very interesting ways! For example, “Contact” begins with a techno beat that’s been deconstructed to it’s very core, clicking and stuttering like a broken machine, and seemingly running oblivious to any human sense. Reinalda sets this in a strangely oxygenated, ambient atmosphere, as we hear Boards of Canada-like children briefly playing in the unsettling distance; and using his surreal compositional sense, and tongue-and-cheek style, he goes on to build this track from ghostly, clipped vocal samples, a broken one-note melody line on repeat, footwork-friendly rhythms, and deep sighs of bass! The video for the track was created by Marco Braunschweiler, with additional photography from Ashleigh Marie Parker, and it’s bizarre mash-up of high definition imagery includes National Geographic-type footage of cowboys, running giraffes, and predatory birds, intercut by more mundane shots of fast food restaurants, warehouse spaces, and Reinalda himself seated and viewed from various profile angles. Don’t miss the Soundcloud embed for “Contact” after the video…