If you feel like you’re waking up to the weirdest day ever, here’s something to channel your inner strange.
Some things you should know about Tesla Boy:
1. They’re a Russian quartet made up of Anton Sevidov, Leo Zatagin, Stas “Pioneerball” Astakhov, and Mike Studnitsyn.
2. They make synth-stoked electronica with a pinch of 80s new wave pop. Remember Zoot Woman / Jacques Lu Cont / Les Rythmes Digitales? Probably not, but there are hints of all Stuart Price’s acts in Tesla Boy’s polished curves.
3. Back in March they released a video for Nothing directed by LA auteur Ryan Patrick, who’s helmed videos for Cut Copy, The Weeknd and more. It’s less a music video than a rad short film featuring a girl under house arrest. She’s visited by some social worker peeps and asked to show them, using a life-size burlap doll, “what happened to Sergei.” This leads to the most brilliantly freaky and fabulous interpretive dancing and elegant dry humping sequence. As if a fully grown Maddie Ziegler was reworking Lars and the Real Girl as a murderous musical. She re-enacts her entire relationship with Sergei and we’re officially in love with this lead actress Jade-Lorna Sullivan.
4. For their video for Circles—a house-meets-Italo-disco number—they re-team with Patrick and Sullivan and the results are similarly stunning. It all takes place in a Chinese restaurant where faces are peeled and waving roast chickens are tangoed with. App dating is also involved in the story line, and just like with Nothing some sick choreography is deployed (thanks to Denna Thomsen, who’s worked with Sigur Ros and Sia).