"Blending the charming guitar stylings of Pulp and the like, Home Video's minimal electro Brit-pop is infectious, to say the least. At times reminiscent of really poppy new wave, No Certain Night Or Morning is destined to stick in our heads for some time to come." - XLR8R
“Home Video start off with the kind of bassline Snap! would've turned down on grounds of if it being too infectious before snaking sophisticatedly into 'Blue Monday'-era New Order.” - NME
"Plaintive fragile vocals and guitars wrap their way around pulsing electro that recalls M/A/R/R/S, early Electribe 101 and the icy atmospherics of Boards of Canada from this shady NY duo. It is beautiful, haunting and original." - Music Week
"[Home Video's] got the ability to be at the forefront of where electronic music is steadily venturing: rock hybrids." - BPM
BIOGRAPHY
Home Video (www.homevideo.fm) are Collin Ruffino and David Gross, transplants from
the misunderstood landscape of New Orleans, now living in the
brooding brownstones of Brooklyn, New York. Here they revel
in a self-created world of references to Edward Gorey, Massive
Attack, The Brothers Quay, Smashing Pumpkins, and a dusting
of Chopin, references that they have been collecting for nearly
ten years.
They connected in high school art class in 1997. Under the instruction
of an eccentric painter, who claimed to have been raised in
a Louisiana chateau where servants peeled grapes for him to
eat, they spent hours drawing still lives of twisted vegetables
and rendering the chiaroscuro of adolescent self portraits.
Outside of art class, they made a short narrative video starring
David, and directed by Collin, a collaborative set up that continues
still and perhaps an influence for their band name.
At the time Collin wore all black, listened to Nine Inch Nails
and Smashing Pumpkins, and was in a band called The Great and
Secret Show. David, a classical pianist in training and the
son of two classical musicians, had been sheltered from the
Top 40, or anything composed after 1900. It wasn't until Collin
played him a cassette tape of The Great and Secret Show that
David realized pop music had the potential to be as emotionally
impacting as classical. Collin continued pulling him into the
20th century, introducing him to albums like Mezzanine, Dummy,
and OK Computer. David started playing keyboards for the band.
College scattered the members of the Great and Secret Show,
David in Boston studying music and philosophy, Collin in New
York studying film, but they remained in touch and created music
together during summer breaks. Once the distraction of higher
education was out of the way, they reconvened with New York
as home and soon discovered a new sound as their latest incarnation,
Home Video (www.homevideo.fm).
The first Home Video song came to them in the dead of winter,
the blizzard of 2003. As the piling snow erased the landscape
outside his window, David huddled over the warm vibrations of
an analog synthesizer creating the simple loop that first inspired
their minimalist sound. The fear and anxiety of New York's atmosphere
at the time had eaten its way onto the pages of Collin's tattered
notebooks and became their confessional style of lyrics. Underlined
by a thumping, bass-rich beat, the pairing of the two worked
well and the song evolved into Melon, the first Home Video
song created and the closing track on the album. Inspired by
their new philosophy, other songs quickly followed and the band
sent out demos.
Originally discovered by Warp Records, the label released Home Video's first two EPs in 2004, both packaged in sleeves illustrated by Collin's dark, Gorey-esque drawings. "That You Might", a 10" single, immediately picked up considerable attention in Britain from BBC Radio 1 and the NME, while the five song Citizen EP earned the band a feature in Rolling Stone. In 2006, New York based Defend Music released their debut full length, No Certain Night Or Morning. Grammy-nominated DJ Sasha picked two of the songs from this album to remix for his recently released Involver 2, which also included reworked songs from Thom Yorke, Ladytron, M83, and Apparat.
As electronic-rock producers and performers, they record everything themselves, then adapt it live into a full on rock show with live drums and hypnotic visual projections. After sharing a bill in London at the start of Home Video's first European tour, Blonde Redhead were so impressed that they invited the band to support them for three weeks of shows in North America. Since then they have opened for such diverse acts as Justice, Yeasayer, Flying Lotus, Crystal Castles, Pinback, Colder, Radio 4, and His Name is Alive.
It Will Be OK is the first new material Home Video have released since 2006, and illustrates the band's new direction in both sound and attitude. The new music has a thickness and complexity that their early minimalist work lacked; the gloom and darkness gives way to glimmerings of hope marked by sublime swells of sound. For the first time, they've been recording with their touring drummer, Jim Orso, who adds a third dimension and brings new life to the beat.
Surrounded by the trend-infested-quick-high of the New York music scene, Home Video (www.homevideo.fm) are slow-burning pop that will invade your dreams and memories.
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