The Chicago-based artist has delivered an unsettling and striking video following the release of his EP “Chamomile”
A distinctly-unique voice has emerged on SoundCloud, and his name is nocloud. With songs that pair trap rhythms with wistfully sung vocals, nocloud has crafted a masterful collection of songs that live somewhere between dreamy dance tracks and emo lullabies. In the wake of his new EP Chamomile, the Chicago-based artist has released a disturbing visual for his track “i’m tired of this” — a song that epitomizes his preference for contraction.
The track finds nocloud’s vocals barely distinguishable from an echoing piano instrumental. Low rhythms and electronic counter-melodies juxtapose the morose piano chords, the intonation of which nocloud’s voice mimics throughout the song. Though the melancholic tone of the song is bolstered by those synthetic interjections, lyrics like “half of me, wish that I could disappear” remind listeners that “i’m tired of this” is, at its core, a song about emotional disconnect and feeling adrift.
The song’s music video, directed by Oscar Sobolewski, is as visually dynamic as the track is sonically. The video opens on the tops of several leafless trees, their branches backed by a cloudless gray sky before cutting quickly to smeared blood on a hardwood floor. The rest of the visual cuts between a bloodied and chained nocloud and a dancer in the woods whose face is wrapped in blood-stained gauze. While the shots of nocloud in his chains are dark and, at times, difficult to make out, the shots of his co-star are almost overexposed — the white of her dress shattering the gray of the forest and providing a bright backdrop for the red blood on her face and hands and her long black hair. These faceless opposites seem at odds with one another, unable to connect with or comfort each other through a mutual pain.
With a notable sound and strong eye for visual storytelling, nocloud is an emerging artist who will soon make his way onto everyone’s radar. With the promise of more new music coming soon, check out nocloud’s striking video for “i’m tired of this” below.