When we reviewed flyckt previously (his ‘Spotlight’ single) he’d adopted the persona of a Nordic James Dean. This time out he does a pretty good job in the video of a Terminator 1 Arnie Schwarzenegger without the muscles.
It must be the least expensive pop music video ever made as he spends the entire three and a half minutes sat naked on his bare butt and is totally different from his previous one.
The track follows on from ‘Spotlight’ in that it continues to examine his personal insecurities and on this occasion the feelings of instability and confusion in the aftermath of the breakup of his former band Urban Cone. Presumably that instability is what has ‘stripped’ him of his ‘protective’ clothing in the video?
He certainly thinks hard and deeply about his art. Check this out: “After the breakup with my band, dealing with chaos and being generally unstable and confused, I started thinking about happiness. I think it’s impossible to be happy without love. But I also believe self-fulfilment is a big part of happiness. Instant gratification is a song about things I’ve been doing wrong. It’s about me and people’s urge to have more, and the struggle to find balance. I believe balance is key to happiness. It’s a song about being patient, and investing time and love into whatever you want to do with your life." I’m not quite sure I follow all that, there seem to be many factors involved in happiness, but there’s no doubt he puts some serious thought into his work.
He takes inspiration from a wide spectrum of genres and sounds, and cites Nicolas Jaar, SebastiAn and Bon Iver as influences. There’s not much that’s reminiscent of Bon Iver here, perhaps Jaar as it’s more a case of dance influences mixed in with a bit of pop, R&B and even rap.
There’s an interesting contrast in the way the song opens, with a simple piano riff that could be playing in Rick’s Café in the opening scenes of Casablanca, and the complex ending of piano, synth, bass and contrasting drum beats. Which all suggests that flyckt has plenty more tricks up his sleeve. If he has a sleeve.
‘Instant Gratification’ is out now. Debut EP 'Instant Gratification pt.1' is released August 28th via Humming Records.