Will Wiesenfeld has a bonkers sense of humor, but it’s never been all that evident in his music. Under the moniker Baths, Wiesenfeld’s songs have tended towards masochism and darkness far more than they’ve reflected the bizarro comedy of his social media accounts, which are largely composed of photos of novelty license plates and whimsically horny tweets about both anime dads and video game butts.
Though we haven’t heard any new material from the Baths project since 2013’s Obsidian LP, and that album’s follow-up EP, 2014’s Ocean Death, Wiesenfeld has quietly released over three albums of gorgeous ambient music via Bandcamp, under the name Geotic.
Now, after years of being Wiesenfeld’s “passive dance” side project, Geotic is finally getting its due. “Actually Smiling” is our first taste of Abysma, the upcoming full-length from Geotic, to be released via Ghostly on March 31st. It’s the poppiest piece of music to come from the project thus far but still bears all the hallmarks of the best Wiesenfeld/Baths/Geotic tracks: throbbing side-chained synths, stuttering lead melodies, and the beautiful echoes of Wiesenfeld’s supernatural soprano.
But, perhaps most importantly, the music video is just insane.
It’s absurd and wonderful, every single part of it, but here are some of my favorite details:
- In the opening scene, Wiesenfeld and his “protege” each have one single slice of white bread on their respective plates, perfectly toasted and entirely uneaten.
- It took me three viewings to notice that they’re wearing matching shoes (in different colors).
- “I feel like I am precisely one third of the way to having the correct amount of hair to swim in the ocean.”
- The precise positioning of Wig #2 made me do a double take. It really looks as much like a dead cat as it possibly can.
- This shot.
Geotic’s Abysma is out March 31 via Ghostly and on Bandcamp.
Written by Matt Sater