The New York based project unveils a new visual exclusively via The Wire
King Vision Ultra – the alter ego of PTP label boss Geng – presents a new video produced and edited by Derek Schultz and Andrew Remdenok for the track “Swallow My Drowning Head (The Water From Inside My Head)” excerpted from KVU’s debut tape Pain Of Mind (released earlier this year via Ascetic House).
Schultz and Remdenok describe the concept and process that went into the video’s creation: “We are presenting mental distress as an organic invader into the character’s headspace, watching it go through a metamorphosis as it takes more control. The video was created using various video synth and glitch modules, and was recorded using discarded bootleg VHS tapes. The process is meant to replicate King Vision Ultra’s recording and composing methods in a video format.”
Geng adds, "In the video, as well as on the cover of Pain Of Mind, you see an ant that has succumbed to a parasitic fungal infection known as cordyceps. It's also referred to as the ‘zombie fungus’ since it literally takes control of the host insect's muscles, often causing them to perform an odd death ritual like latching onto a branch for days until fungus outgrowths burst from the head, and rest of the body, to release spores for reproduction. What came first, nature or HR Giger?
"I was sitting on this footage which in early Pain Of Mind sessions, I’d play it alongside this track as a writing companion. It became time for a deeper delve into the KVU storyline so I passed it to them. I love how they flipped this visual journey which mirrors both the album’s narrative in theme and process. The stem rupturing the ant’s head is pretty tantamount to the vocal samples bearing inner thoughts-turned-tumult. Texturally, there’s also that degradation - it’s claustrophobic as half the time you're wondering what you’re being fed while these images pour out and dirge along. There’s more room for the mind to wander into self-administered horror.”
Pain Of Mind is released by Ascetic House. Read Joseph Stannard’s interview with King Vision Ultra in The Wire 408. Subscribers can access it digitally via the online archive.
