VHS Head

Stitching together horror B movies, instructional tapes, and who knows what from his vast archive, VHS Head makes a celebrated return to Skam with his first album in almost a decade since 2014’s Persistence of Vision. Furthering his tireless quest in cutting up VHS tapes to make visceral and bombastic electronica, his third album Phocus is the soundtrack to an “unfinished science fiction film made in the Fylde coast area”. The film explores the titular character and “the duality of actions on and off screen”, set to intense music that mixes the sounds of 80s synthwave, electroclash, and vaporwave into an electrified whirlwind of sample splendour.

Glitching rainbow VHS artefacts show in stuttering sunset guitars and trickling shards of 80s synths refiltered across the album, guided by dense jungles of heavy drums and glossy storms of arpeggios ripping right through. ‘Skinflex’ is hazy and dazed with the chopped up VHS tape sounds that VHS Head takes his name from, shifting to the murky, pummelling beats of ‘Fake Sweat’ with its maximalist sound effect details and slithering bass. ‘Shoes For Dinosaurs’ references old-style monster movies with hyperspeed glitters and torn up microbeats, while ‘Devour the Heart’ turns down a magical route as ethereal saxophone echoes mimic light bent through layers of tape and synth shimmer.

VHS Head has opened up another CRT screen sampledelia treasure trove with his long-awaited third album Phocus.

VHS Head