Given the number of TV series that have used VHS Collection's music, it's amazing that they have not yet appeared on the Netflix series Sex Education. They occupy the same ambiguous retro-futuristic space: somewhere between the Eighties and an imagined 21st Century, shot like a John Hughes movie. Formed by school friends Conor Cook, James Bohannon, and Nils Vanderlip, the name was inspired by weekends away, where the only entertainment came in the form of antiquated video cassettes.
Their debut album, the appropriately titled Retrofuturism (2018) was the most consistent synth-pop album not released in the Eighties since the Limousine's Hush. A satisfying twelve tracks, most of which sound like hit singles from a parallel universe: nothing overstays its welcome. VHS's default setting it would seem is the radio edit.
While the Limousine's were a product of the Bay Area music scene, VHS Collection are steeped in New York rock history: the Lower East Side and clubs synonymous with the city's punk heritage, selling out the Mercury Lounge for a series of headline shows in 2015. Since then they have gone to play multiple festivals including Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits and Firefly.
'Waiting for the Summer' from the EP Stereo Hype became a viral hit in 2016, with over 32 millions plays on Spotify. 'Sign' trailered the new album at the end of 2017: its vocoder opening echoing the space disco, filtered sound of Daft Punk. One reviewer Matt Williams descried the track 'as piercing as a sunset on Brooklyn Bridge'
While other singles have been retooled by house producers like Fred Falke and Viceroy, 'Sign' exists only in the perfection of its original form: part ballad; part electro-pop banger. While the band are keen on 'visualiser' promos, there is an absence of performance footage on YouTube.
So, with apologies to Matthew Moone, whose audience footage I have “borrowed”, here is the audio for 'Sign': spliced with some VHS footage of New York, from a genuine 1980s travelogue...
Check out VHS Collection on Spotify
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