Live Review: PREMIERE: Get dark and heavy with MOLLUSC's 'Anxiety'

There's something scary yet vaguely erotic about MOLLUSC's new video 'Anxiety'. In it, Melbourne darkwave/post-punk duo, Emma Hart (HARDATA) and Mohini Hillyer (HABITS), stare out at us with cold indifference, gyrating and mouthing the words to their anxiety-inducing track.

Filmed and directed primarily in the darkness by Andrea Blake, it features black-clad party-goers dancing in a stylised fashion. In front of them are Hart and Hillyer, both their manes a shocking orange. These visuals are layered over with the song's lyrics, which appear in orange bold throughout. It's simply mesmerising to watch.

The song is made sinister by its indecipherability. The lyrics are sung in a way that creates a shaky reverb. The vocals are anxiety-inducing by force of their repetition, but there's also something magnetic about them which keeps you hooked, too. The track's chanting/singing, made up of what sounds like a melange of voices, perhaps both male and female, underscores its satanic feel. In the background are havoc-wreaking noises, raw and industrial. There's even a whirring sound like a high-pitched drill somewhere, adding texture and increasing the sense of this being a kind of sonic assault on your ears (in a good way, of course).

The video heightens the music's sense of the occult, featuring odd rituals and, inexplicably, MOLLUSC's two members eating and feeding each other grapes. This is just the sort of weirdness that fans of MOLLUSC will appreciate. I can just hear and see this live! This track is a solid example of post-punk darkness.

This release also comes with the news that It Records will be re-releasing MOLLUSC's game-changing, self-released EP from 2015. What was originally released as a cassette will now take a digital form and an ultra limited edition vinyl pressing. Six new remixes will also be included in the new release from the likes of Raquel Solier (Various Asses), Nina Buchanan (Hardata, UTI), Fjorn Butler (Papaphilia), Andrea Blake (Vaccum, ASPS), Chris Campion (Multiple Man), and Ollie Olsen (Taipan Tiger Girls, Whirlywind). MOLLUSC will be launching the EP on Friday February 16th at Tote. With support from VACCUUM, SPOTTING and PAPAPHILIA, this is sure to be an unmissable night. More info on that here.

Image supplied

Words by Camilla Patini

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