Watch Eyeliner's Animated Video For 'Los Angeles'

Aotearoa MIDI pop magnate Eyeliner aka Luke Rowell has reunited with longtime collaborator Simon Ward (the same team that gave us Disasteradio's viral clip for 'Gravy Rainbow') on a swish animated video for 'Los Angeles', from his fab new album Drop Shadow. Rendering the sun-soaked vistas of the California metropolis in crisp HD, the gleaming geometries of 'Los Angeles' guide viewers on a spiritually uplifting walk / jog / glide of fame through seemingly endless suburban sprawl, breezy palm tree dotted coastlines, towering cityscapes and beyond — recalling at moments the dawn of 3D imagery of ancient NZ music TV intros and the cartoon abstraction of mid-'80s Tangerine Dream album covers. Not content with dazzling us on our digital devices, the 2018 Walters Prize nominated Ward will be providing live visuals for Princess Chelsea's forthcoming tour of Aotearoa, hitting the four main centres, Hamilton and Waiheke Island in late November and early December. Rowell spilled the beans about working with Ward and his love for the City Of Angels...

"99% of the video magic is pure Simon Ward - I did a little bit of 3D modelling, but his animation galaxy mind absolutely completes the equation... Even though I’m in Hong Kong at the moment and he’s back home in Wellington, it felt just like old times. We tried to pull the whole video out over one weekend - as we did in the first video he made for Awesome Feelings way back in 2007 - but Simon kept getting cool new ideas and I needed a bit more time to model a digital facsimile of downtown LA.

I wrote the tune shortly before heading out on tour on the West Coast USA in 2018 and didn’t manage to play it live on that tour, but a year later I was blessed to be able to debut it at 100% Electronica’s Electronicon 2 festival right smack-bang in the middle of Mid-City LA.

In the time around the festival I spent my days just walking around different suburbs of LA and eating fantastic food. 2020 has been a particularly awful time for the American people and my thoughts have never been too far for my buddies over there. It’s a place of impeccable art, activism, comedy, music... And for me, the tune is definitely a reflection of gratitude for that.

I adore how the video turned out, Simon got the perfect mix of “daytime TV promo”, “pharmacy advert” and “maths textbook cover art.”

'Drop Shadow' is out now digitally and on limited edition cassette via Orange Milk Records.