Watch: Timber Timbre – Bad Ritual

IFC have premiered ‘Bad Ritual’, the new video from Canadian trio Timber Timbre, and the latest in a series of videos from second album Creep On Creepin’ On.

The jarring plinky-plonky keys and sparse drum beat which introduce the track, and continue throughout, set the uneasy tone perfectly for Taylor Kirk’s seductive but creepy baritone croon, and it is this sense of menace that the video reflects. Lynchian images of patent red stilettos in the taillights of a car, combine with the stark red-on-white of a red rose against a blank wall, and ghoulish flickering monochrome images. All this set beneath the deep and slightly fuzzy, slowly sung words “It’s a bad, bad ritual, but it calms me down”, result in a sexy and coolly stylised horror, with a very appealing kind of American-gothic dilapidated glamour.

There’s the pulpy and trashy element of a Tarantino film here – in the shiny red shoes, the red lipstick, and seedy motel bed sheets – but with an added chilling surreality. And both these qualities reflect the seemingly contradicting qualities of the song – that it seems at once brash and simplistic, and yet laden with hidden innuendo and meaning.

Deliciously dark, and with a video to match – ‘Bad Ritual’ is taken from Creep On Creepin’ On, which is available now on Full Time Hobby.