Watch: Pillars and Tongues “Knifelike”

01 Oct 2013 — Henning Lahmann

When Henry Schiller wrote about Chicago outfit Pillars and Tongues' latest single "Knifelike" a couple of weeks back, he suggested it would be perfect "to watch a sunrise to". While I found his advice initially quite convincing, the image is lost now that I've watched the official, David Sampson-directed video for the song. Whatever kind of sunshine might have been implied in the three-piece's folk-indebted compositiion originally, Sampson's dreamlike visual accompaniment aims more at the subconscious: gathered around a rather uncanny than comforting bonfire, band members Beth Remis, Ben Babbitt, and Mark Trecka present or are faced with – that remains deliberately unclear – different artefacts whose significance for the protagonists might necessitate proper psychoanalysis. The video's overall tone is correspondingly and, we may add, appropriately sombre. It's not exactly pessimism that prevails, let alone depression. But just like the song's darker overtones, an indistinct, fragile cautiousness has taken over, hinting at a different kind of poetry.

"Knifelike" appears on End-dances, which is out now on Empty Cellar.