Austrian/German shoegaze duo Usagi is Dead pay homage to songwriter/producer Oliver T.’s hometown in the music video for “Vienna”: a glimpse of their forthcoming debut album Chasing Shadows. The video makes up for the lack of any specific mention of the city in the song’s lyrics with shots of Viennese parks, buildings, fields, trains, and skylines (“locations in, around and above Vienna that can’t be found in any travel guide”). This focus on universality instead of specificity is arguably fair, given that the duo claim that their sonic collaboration combines the “synergetic effects of two metropolises”. Instead, there are generic descriptions of urban life: girls kissing boys in the park after dark; going ‘underground’ after sunset.
Hamburg-born vocalist and frontman Felix L. mostly focuses on the internal meanderings and transformations prompted by his experience of living in the city (‘Need to get out of here once in awhile/ To take care of myself/ Settle down and smile”), backed by a familiar yet distinct dream-pop production that blends the chillwave and indie sounds of their respective childhoods. The bedroom pop-leaning production is reassuring, comforting and familiar, with the slight twist of taking the genre's preoccupations with introverted isolation outdoors, into the city's historic architecture and wide, open spaces.
