Tag: West Wickhams The Conformist

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: West Wickhams Share Shimmering and Dreamy “At The Cinema”

Back in 2022, the Richmond, UK-based self-described “psychedelic, garage noir” duo  West Wickhams — Jon Othello and Elle Flores — released their debut, Consider Her Way, which featured the brooding, The Cure-meets-Cocteau Twins-like “Consider Her Way” and their sophomore EP Magenta, which featured the slick The Cure-meets-New Order-like “This Is a Hang Up,” one of the more dance-floor friendly tracks of their growing catalog. 

The British JOVM mainstays started this year with Vivre Sa Vie. Translated into English as “Your life to live,” the album features the previously released “The Conformist,” which continued a run of 80s goth and post-punk inspired material, but with chiming percussion, which added a subtle bit of bright and sunny beauty to the generally dark, brooding air they’ve established.

Vivre Sa Vie‘s latest single “At The Cinema” is a decidedly 80s post punk song that seemingly channels Garlands-era Cocteau Twins, The Cure, Siouxsie and The Banshees and several others with the track being anchored around shimmering and reverb soaked guitars, a laconic, almost narcoleptic backbeat paired seemingly distracted dreamy vocals. Tune in and tune out, perhaps?

The accompanying video follows a collection of extremely British mods brooding and goofing off for the camera, much like characters in the movies do.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: West Wickhams Share Brooding and Shimmering “The Conformist”

Originally formed in Tresco, the second biggest island of the Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, UK, an island famously known as “The Island of Lost Souls,” and now currently based in Richmond, UK, the self-described psychedelic, garage noir duo West Wickhams — Jon Othello and Elle Flores — named their project after an imagined rival gang to British punk style icons The Bromley Contingent, a group who followed Sex Pistols and whose style was largely influenced by David Bowie and Roxy Music. 

Their overall aesthetic is influenced by a wide range of goth and horror sources including the work of Mary Shelley, Whitby Abbey, Edgar Allan Poe, Andy Warhol, abstract painting, film noir and more. 

Back in 2022, the duo released two EPs, their debut EP Consider Her Way, which featured the brooding, The Cure-meets-Cocteau Twins-like “Consider Her Way.” They quickly followed up with their sophomore EP Magenta, which featured the slick The Cure-meets-New Order-like “This Is a Hang Up,” one of the more dance-floor friendly tracks of their growing catalog.

The British outfit start 2024 with the recently released effort, Vivre Sa Vie. The album’s latest single “The Conformist” continues a run of material clearly indebted to 80s goth and post-punk — but with chiming percussion, which adds a subtle bit of bright beauty to the generally dark, brooding air.

“The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it’s conformity,” the duo say of their latest single.

The accompanying video is based among edited stock footage of two dangers — rendered in stark and trippy negative, as though they’re dancing amongst the cosmos.