L’Anarchiste – “Samundar” (video) (Premiere)

In the press materials for their new LP, Giant, the Salt Lake City, Utah group L’Anarchiste explain that the music was “written in the foothills of Salt Lake City in the trees on a hammock by a creek”. When watching the video to the Giant track “Samundar”, though, such an idyllic, pastoral description comes off as a little odd — if not funny. Although the song does feature a banjo, as good an instrument to play while relaxing in a hammock as ever there was, it’s far from the Americana fold. Musically, the song is tough to pin an easy description on — which makes it all the more appealing. Visually, “Samundar” takes the music up another notch with an arresting series of dances, as you can view in the video below. In an age where indie rock groups, even those claiming to be “experimental”, typically fall into the rote, boilerplate moves that have been done countless times before, hearing a band like L’Anarchiste craft such intriguing sonic landscapes is quite refreshing.

Primary songwriter Rob LeCheminant says to PopMatters, “This song at its core is about being in the unknown or a place of darkness without knowledge of what to say, what to do, or where to go. Sometimes, on a superficial level, we don’t know what to say — or on a deeper level, don’t know who we are. We are subject to the onslaught of time that just goes and goes without regard to our concerns, but we can take the comfort of memory and that it guides us and stays with us. It’s in these memories that we find some direction, understanding, and clarity; but it requires venturing out to swim in the deep and to gaze upwards at the stars to find what we’re looking for.”

Giant is out on 14 July via Kilby Records (Bandcamp pre-order).