Video of the Week: The Seshen “Unravel”

Earlier this week we gave The Seshen’s Unravel EP a glowing recommendation, so it’s only natural that we would single out the title track’s video for video of the week honors. A slow paced creepy panoramic view of a near derelict apartment building and the tragedy lurking within, “Unravel” as a video might seem slightly at odds with the more cheerful pop of the track, but it’s not too much of a leap to suspect those thundering drum hits of harboring menacing notions. There is also the key line “Something is happening/Don’t know what it is,” which could be a future horror film’s tagline.

Without giving too much away, I should also clarify that “Unravel” isn’t creepy in a Saw kind of way, but more in a Enter the Void kind of way, and that should serve as a tip off to some of you. But even without the supernatural elements, it’s a clip that gets The Seshen’s rhythmic approach to pop songcraft, with each cut syncing up with an editing beat, the video and audio coming together as perfectly as that trailer the Coens did for A Serious Man. It’s also nuanced enough that once you get to the video’s twist, there are plenty of subtle hints to go back to when you revisit it, fitting for a band that fills their pop songs with so many layers you can’t possibly pick everything up the first time around.

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Nick Hanover got his degree from Disneyland, but he’s the last of the secret agents and he’s your man. Which is to say you can find his particular style of espionage here at Loser City as well as Ovrld, where he contributes music reviews and writes a column on undiscovered Austin bands.  You can also flip through his archives at  Comics Bulletin, which he is formerly the Co-Managing Editor of, and Spectrum Culture, where he contributed literally hundreds of pieces for a few years. Or if you feel particularly adventurous, you can always witness his odd .gif battles with friends and enemies on twitter: @Nick_Hanover