VR SEX Release ‘Rough Dimension’ LP, Embark on North American Tour
Their sophomore full-length is out today via Dais Records. // Catch VR SEX on the road now.
Photo credit: Corinne Schiavone
The latest by Andrew Clinco’s acid punk alias VR SEX takes its title from an architectural phrase but more importantly refers to the warped, wicked underworld the songs both chronicle and condemn. Donning the moniker Noel Skum – an acerbic anagram of Elon Musk – Clinco vents his scorn for and fascination with the seedy, surreal margins of low-life Los Angeles, doomed to dead ends of vanity, lust, and technology. Although initially launched as an outlet for “heavier sounds” beyond Clinco’s duties in new wave fantasists Drab Majesty, the project has ripened into a compelling exercise in world building, weaving themes of gritty city neo- futurist sleaze within a framework of driving, distorted guitars and cathode-blasted synths. Echoes of Chrome, Wire, Minimal Man, and Sisters Of Mercy ripple through the collection but ultimately Rough Dimension charts its own twisted vision of “our unforgiving reality.”
Written and demoed across two weeks alone in a Marseille flat using his prized 1980’s Gibson “Invader” and a laptop, Clinco then took the tracks to Strange Weather studios in Brooklyn to record with Ben Greenberg (Uniform, The Men) who helmed 2019’s debut, Human Traffic Jam. The results are notably ripping, refined, and riveting. Riffs in alternate tunings chug and churn over mid-tempo drums punctuated by spikes of sci-fi electronics while the vocals swagger and spit venom (“where we walk is also where we shit / but if we bark at our reflections are we hypocrites? / impulses bleed right into our seed / where hate culminates the apple rotted on the tree”). It’s a bristling mix of the melodic and the macabre, absurdist observations of fast living and desperate measures, the clock of youth ticking towards midnight as dreams unravel in Babylon.
VR SEX’s specialty is making these cautionary tales of psychic decay and tainted love a thrill rather than a drag. There’s a sunglasses at night glamor to Clinco’s choruses and solos, a wit to his black leather judgements (“what is the answer / to cancerous people / walking in my line of sight?”). The music’s milieu tends towards parasites and predators but its mood skews refreshingly accelerated and amused, cruising the strip with a cigarette, watching goths and limousines crawl in gridlock beneath digital billboards. The Rough Dimension may be a cesspool, but it’s home.
Listen to Rough Dimension on digital streaming platforms here.
Rough Dimension is out today on physical + digital formats from Dais Records. VR SEX is on the road in North America in support of the album now — check out all tour dates listed below.
VR SEX, ON TOUR:
3/24/2022 San Diego, CA The Casbah %
3/25/2022 Los Angeles, CA Zebulon %
3/26/2022 Oakland, CA Elbo Room Jack London %
3/28/2022 Seattle, WA Barboza %
3/30/2022 Vancouver, BC The Fox Cabaret %
3/31/2022 Portland, OR Mississippi Studios %
4/1/2022 Boise, ID Neurolux %
4/2/2022 Reno, NV Holland Project %
4/8/2022 Phoenix, AZ Valley Bar
4/9/2022 Tucson, AZ Club Congress
4/11/2022 Austin, TX Hotel Vegas #
4/12/2022 Dallas, TX Cheap Steaks #
4/13/2022 Houston, TX Secret Group #
4/14/2022 New Orleans, LA Santos #
4/15/2022 Atlanta, GA The Earl #
4/16/2022 Nashville, TN The End #
4/18/2022 Washington, DC DC9 $
4/20/2022 Philadelphia, PA PhilaMOCA $
4/22/2022 Brooklyn, NY Saint Vitus $
4/23/2022 Cambridge, MA Middle East (Upstairs) $
4/24/2022 Montreal, QB L'esco
4/25/2022 Toronto, ON The Monarch
4/26/2022 Detroit, MI UFO Factory $
4/27/2022 Chicago, IL The Empty Bottle $
4/29/2022 Denver, CO Hi Dive $
4/30/2022 Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge $
% with Marbled Eye
# with The Serfs
$ with Lunacy
Rough Dimension cover art:
Rough Dimension, track list:
1. Victim Or Vixen
2. Glutton For Love
3. Cyber Crimes
4. Live (In A Dream)
5. Walk of Fame
6. Crisis Stage
7. Taste Of Hate
8. Snake Water
9. End Vision
Photo credit: Corinne Schiavone
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