VIDEO PREMIERE | Burner Herzog, "Lucky Star"

Masked up with Jasper Leach of Burner Herzog; press photo courtesy of the artist.

As the entire itinerary of the universe was derailed for the better part of the year; the indefatigable human spirit of creativity saw the world of arts carrying forward under restrictive and largely solitary conditions. Prolific Bay Area artist / mercurial pop boffin Jasper Leach who has been making music as of late under the moniker of Burner Herzog released the magnificent album Big Love last July, recorded at the mythic Donut Time Audio Studios. A record made in the spirit of designing sprawling, freewheeling demos; Jasper turns up the dials of weirdness and cult wonders with the semi-spiritual "Bob Dylan is a CIA Man", the what-in-the-world imagination spectacle of "Rubble", to the 60s mod art pop street hassling "Hard Times"; sweating to the sewer-surfing oldies of togetherness on "You and I". Leach and the crew take it to the balladry hilt with the heavenly light of "Prayer Candles", keeping that energy going on the urgent matters of the heart with the triumphant tragic and vulnerable twang of "I Need Your Love", to surveying the post-patriarchal ruins of antiquated, outdated and obsolete evil empires governed by toxic-machismo overlords on the machine raging protests of "Big Man".

The big lead pop single "Lucky Star" from the new Burner Herzog album shimmers with the light sparkling glimmer like the missing link between glam, punk and no wave/new wavers. Presenting the world premiere of the Mike Harris-directed visual [known for work with Juicy J, Offset, Ty Dolla $ign, et al.], a moonage mid-solstice night's dream is brought to homemade life in a minimalist fashion. In between edits of fireworks, creature and cabin comforts; Jasper is seen singing with a lamp and a plastic toy ray-gun like a long lost earthbound spider descended from mars. It’s an elegant and precise electro update to the throes of 70s t.rextasy, summoning the tin machine space oddities that fell to earth in an astral power ballad that reverberates between dimensions and reality timelines.

"Lucky Star" bops to the sound of junkshop EU/UK singles from the 70s melted expertly together in a contemporary post-modern fusion. The video features the fearless frontman sequestered like the rest of the world to his domicile, singing a song of cosmic fortunes from the confines of home. The visual minimalism works in tandem with the song's economic and pointed execution of illuminated notes and tones that arrive at a crescendo of galaxy howling guitars and explosive drum fills. Harris directs this spaceman sequence short as an intergalactic visual hymn of intergalactic luminescence all performed under shelter-in-place protocol. As the song gradually rockets upward toward new constellations; the pyrotechnics that populate the video and our protagonist's movements are suddenly seen in reverse at the arrival of the song's abrupt close. "Lucky Star" sheds some electric rays of planetary light in an era that often feels imbued within the billowing fog and suffocating smoke of a perpetual nocturnal state.

Burner Herzog, aka Jasper Leach, shared an exclusive preface reflecting on Big Love with some lunar insights on the inceptions and stardusted fascinations beyond the sounds and visions of “Lucky Star”:

Big Love, to me, is about moving away from one's paranoia, fear and cynicism toward an open heart and a clearer vision of the world. Progress, but it comes at its own price. See, I was reading Dale Carnegie and taking THC tincture and collecting unemployment and somewhere along the line things got a bit funny, haha and otherwise.

Blinded by the lunar light with Burner Herzog; video still courtesy of director Mike Harris.

I remember, Chet Baker was singing about the stars and at some point he became David Bowie and after a while, they were singing me some new songs in my head. A pair of green eyes were involved — or were they blue eyes, or were they grey eyes? You ask about additional astral influences — please see here. Paraphrasing could only tarnish my reputation. Of course, it's all star stuff anyway, lucky or not.

BIG LOVE is available now via Paisley Shirt Records.