Get Lost in Shmu’s “Alien Switchboard Temple” – AdHoc

Get Lost in Shmu’s “Alien Switchboard Temple”

The visuals for Shmu’s “Your Favorite God” are either celestial or apocalyptic, depending on your point of view. At the start of the hypnotic electronic cut, you’re greeted by the Austin-based electro-noise artist’s bearded, disembodied head, singing along as it floats above a red-and-green checkerboard. Columns supporting some sort of temple float by, as well as an advertisement for throwback kids' toy Rainbow Art, beckoning you to "Dip! Dab! Draw!" 

Thanks to the video’s 360-degree component, you’re “a co-creator in the journey beyond beyond itself itself” according to the video’s creator, Lionel Williams, of Los Angeles neo-psychedelic band Vinyl Williams. You, the viewer, have the ability to pivot and swivel, with the options to look down upon a video of Shmu playing the drums or to turn your back on his sunglasses-clad face to take in a series of detailed set pieces that take shape and disappear as the song picks up steam. The further you progress into Shmu’s digital plane, the more distorted and psychedelic the visuals become, until you’re surrounded by floating orbs and a color scheme reminiscent of the final chaotic (and ultimately blissful) minutes of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

“The lyric, ‘Your Favorite God is calling you back, right on time,’ could be interpreted as a metaphor for the higher self,” Shmu told AdHoc. “There are many metaphysical spiritual philosophies that share the belief that each individual has their own higher self that guides us where we need to go & always is there ‘right on time.’” “Your Favorite God” appears on Shmu’s third full-length, Lead Me To The Glow, which is out September 28 via GTZ Records.

 

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