There is always a need for out-of-the-box thinkers. Without people with unique perspectives, not only would we not advance nearly as much in our enlightenment, but things would be a lot more boring, too. Good thing we have people like Gabriel Walsh, who is definitely a unique thinker. With his band The Earthly Frames, Walsh is constantly devising new ways to create and release music, and choosing subjects for tracks the rest of us may never think about. This creates some truly incredible music, and The Earthly Frames’ new track “A Doorbell for Finite Beings” is no exception. We have the premiere for this exciting new song for you here this afternoon.
“A Doorbell for Finite Beings” draws heavy inspiration from Maxwell’s Demon a thermodynamic thought experiment I’m including the Wikipedia link to because I am not nearly smart enough to explain it to you. In song form, this experiment leads to a whirling, crashing wave of electronic sounds to go on top of a keyboard and more traditional rock instrumentation. You can hear these guitars and drums underneath the controlled chaos, but that controlled chaos is definitely the drawing point. Even Walsh’s voice is coated in all manner of distortions.
The video is an equal exercise in chaos. Tons of visual filters are combined, overlapped, and smashed together as the band plays. Since it’s based on Maxwell’s Demon, of course the titular being makes several appearances throughout the video. There’s also a story being told in comic panel format underneath all of the dazzling effects, and it does all make sense when you piece it together to go with the spectacle.
Walsh explained the philosophical origin of the track, saying “It’s a song about Maxwell’s Demon, the thought experiment from James Clerk Maxwell that posited a potential break with the laws of thermodynamics, also having big implications for information theory. A little guy that could separate cold and hot molecules without taking any energy. So with that as the context, the song is about a breakup where a literal building doorman seems to play an unsettling role separating the couple. Kinda like how when you break up with someone there always seems to be one partner receiving the life force while the other is drained.”
You can watch the video for “A Doorbell for Finite Beings” below. Any of our epileptic readers should note there are some rapid flashes of light in the video. The track is taken from The Earthly Frames’s newly announced album Light Reading, which will be out on January 11.
