Telekinesis—with or without the exclamation point—is a longtime A.V. Club favorite. The band—really just Michael Benjamin Lerner and whoever he’s got around him at the moment—has released three excellent albums, and recently announced the impending release of a fourth, Ad Infinitum. The new one, due out September 18, is full of delightfully dated synth sounds, like a bleep-bloopier version of the same pop genius he’s been doing for years, perhaps made after listening to M83 for a month in a row. We’ve got an exclusive look at the album’s first video, “In A Future World,” which features Michael in a spacesuit and a beachscape that previously appeared on film in The Goonies. While you’ve got Telekinesis on the brain, check out the band’s two A.V. Undercover appearances, covering Belle And Sebastian and Donovan. The video’s director, Justin Lapriore, explains how “In A Future World” came together:
We met. We drank ample amounts of bourbon, which is fitting. There are things that get better with age, 60s space lore, my dads dented stainless suitcase, the foggy memory of movies from our formative years, and bourbon.
Michael’s studio was a spaghetti mess of wires, knobs and analog synths. A beautifully organized dichotomy. Old machines making the sounds of the future. Let’s shoot for something like that. We were going to completely trust this video to the jumpy, glitchy uncertainty of film and a garage sale camera.
I watched Michael tweak countless knobs and reroute patch cables. Searching for the sound of Ad Infinitum. Let’s put a spaceman in the woods, the beach, the car. Let’s have him looking for something. It was a simple, appropriate concept. Uncharted sonic moon beaches. Better bring your helmet.
Space travel is lonely. Always seeking after the sound of anything familiar. Twisting knobs and punching keys, locking in coordinates for a forest or lookout point. Like metaphoric moon boots in the Pacific, only some of this is true, and none of it matters, because in a future world, there’s nothing to say.