Empire of the Sun has released a new video for their track “High and Low”, which features band members Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore floating upon the clouds, dressed in eccentric and colorful costumes that make them look like royalty from another planet. Although the landscape seems pretty earthly at first glance, filled with trees, oceans, and canyons, there are some spacey aspects like floating boulders, and futuristic figures like giant gold lips rising up out of the water that cause one to suspect that maybe the video was actually filmed somewhere in outer space.
In fact, everything about this Australian duo leads one to the possible conclusion that they are some sort of alien life form come to expose our ears to their otherworldly and unparalleled musical creations. With their distinct vocals and experimental electro-pop sound, with its origins lying somewhere between the funky disco era that characterized the 70’s and the glam-rock genre of the 80’s, this band has already gone where no man has gone before in the world of music.
This track provides us with a vividly surreal sneak peek of their forthcoming LP Two Vines, which is their third LP succeeding Ice on the Dune which they released back in 2013. Littlemore spoke on the conceptual objective with which they conceived this album, saying “There was an image we talked about very early on with this record, before we wrote the title track, ‘Two Vines,’ and that was this image of a modern city overtaken by jungle, almost like mother nature taking back the planet… All the buildings will turn back to sand. All it will be is nature again. We wanted to make something that reflected the beauty of that, and the wisdom that plants can give us about living harmoniously on this beautiful planet.”
The album is scheduled to reach Earth on October 28th, and features guest musicians such as Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham, Revolution’s Wendy Melvoin, and Prince. You can pre-order the album on iTunes, which will give you access to both prematurely released tracks “High and Low” and the albums title track “Two Vines”.