Emperor of Ice Cream were poised to be one of the next great bands from Ireland, but their debut album No Sound Ever Dies was never released. Signed to Sony in the early 90’s, they released a number of EPs and were gaining buzz around Cork, but when label politics led to their album not being released, the group broke up and became one of the great “bands that never was”.
Last year things changed. Their debut album was finally released, and with a vinyl reissue on the way, the group has dropped a new single “Weather Vane” and b-side “High Rise, Low Rise”, along with an impressive stop-motion video to accompany it.
The song has a wistfulness to it, brought out by the gentle guitars and aching power pop vocals. The mid-tempo pace picks up halfway into the song as the drums crescendo and flow into a moving pre-bridge instrumental.
While the song plays to the heart, the video is definitely meant to capture your eyes. Abstract and artistic, the video mixes live stop-motion footage with more traditional stop-motion animation. Featuring a man dressed fancifully with Juggalo-esque make-up on, the man interacts with his cluttered, quirky apartment creating sand designs in his door, allowing clay figures to dance along his hand, and dropping flowers from his coat. Other residents of the apartment building are also given entrancing scenes, using the medium to its full advantage.
Watch the video above and stream the single here!