As far as alter-egos go, Jake Robertson’s Alien Nosejob isn’t an outlet for a new persona so much as it is a space to trial new sounds. The moniker’s press material is sparse and direct, pointing all interested minds towards the music while giving nothing but the bare essential facts (if that) as explanation. Those familiar with Jake’s work probably don’t need extra details – most are aware of his penchant for curious punk experimentation and wry commentary. We’re just here for the sounds. To be clear, Alien Nosejob isn’t a throwaway flash-in-the-pan project – Jake has been putting forth noise as Alien Nosejob for a little while now, dishing up early 7” cuts with 2017’s Panel Beat and Death of the Vinyl Boom, which came out earlier this year. Those releases were merely appetisers for the main course – a full album called Various Fads & Technological Achievements, which is less than a month away from its official release.
Building up steam towards the release, Alien Nosejob is releasing a visual accompaniment to the second single from Various Fads & Technological Achievements – an extremely enjoyable track called ‘Abstract Theory’. The clip (created by Sean McAnulty) is simple yet entertaining – a green screen displays deep space exploration while Jake does his thing with guitars in tow. A masked figure (probably still Jake) dances with a trumpet in hand, lending a greater sense of absurdity to proceedings. As for the song itself, it’s an energetic number, replete with automated bop and bounce and searing guitar peals. In ‘Abstract Theory’, Jake dissects the idea of disguising mediocrity with convoluted justifications, substituting facts with complicated reasoning just to cloak the true substantive sum of the self. If you wanted to get analytical, you could draw parallels to the clip’s green-screen production values masking the general simplicity of the clip – but that’s probably a stretch on my part. Either way, the song’s great, the clip’s terrific and the album should be a lot of fucking fun.
https://aliennosejob.bandcamp.com/album/various-fads-technological-achievements
