Premiere: Meanjin/Brisbane garage-rock outfit Velociraptor release a video for the quirky angular ‘Computer Future Part 1’ and announce launch gig.

Having only just re-entered the music scene after a hiatus, Brisbane band Velociraptor have barged their way out of the barriers with their quirky slice of post punk pie, the single ‘Computer Future Part 1’ and we are very proud to premiere the new video for the track.

‘Computer Future Part 1’ is a song about the dystopian nature of our modern society and pogoes about like a punk in a mosh pit.

There is an urgent quirky bounce to the delivery with a mix of Devo, Talking Heads and, for those with long memories of the antipodean music scene, a hint of Mi-Sex’s classic ‘Compute Games’. Bubbles, squeaks and a lot of attitude.

While sung by the band’s drummer George Browning, the song was written by front man Jeremy Neale who says enigmatically:

The year is 1982. Computers are the future. But it’s not yet the future. Velociraptor record Computer Future Part I. Fade to black. 2024. Sounds futuristic, sure. But the computers aren’t what we thought they’d be. They can do cool shit, but like, I had a 486 in the ‘90s that could run Space Quest 5. Now I gotta spend two weeks salary on a phone that is designed to be obsolete in a few years. So instead, I spend two weeks salary on a new couch. It’s tangible. Won’t be obsolete anytime soon, we all gotta sit somewhere. But I don’t wanna sit anymore. My posture is cooked. I wanna walk around.
Gotta stay fit. Gotta stay in the game. But I’m tethered to my phone. And the couch is now obsolete, aesthetically.

This sardonic sense of humour threads its way through the track which is accompanied by an incredible video by video creator SPOD (also an accomplished musician).

SPOD’s eye-wateringly cool visual treatment for Computer Future Part 1 perfectly aligns with both the song’s troubling dystopian overtones as well as its overall aesthetic. How did this incredible underground Oz indie union even come to be, you might quite reasonably ask? Neale answers the question:

Working with director SPOD on the film clip to Computer Future Part 1 is a literal dream come true. It just goes to show that anything is possible if you send an email, and the person you’re sending the email to is receptive to working with you, and then you film a bunch of stuff in Brisbane using green screens and then send it to Hobart to be edited into a modern cinematic masterpiece.

Guitarist Julien James delves even further into the behind-the-scenes magic that transpired during the clip’s exhausting creative phase, as well as the selfless sacrifices made that day in the name of art.

We spent many hours filming each other one by one to the full length of Computer Future Part 1. We cheered every single time to ensure every Raptor knew how incredible the work we were documenting would become. Computer Future Part 1 was played over 80 times. For the last hour we tried some ZORDS combined shots which make us look like a 9-headed hydra. I caught a skittle in my mouth during one of the early shots and I had never done that before. It was a really special night. What SPOD created is pure magic. It’s everything we thought and knew the COMPUTER FUTURE would be.

A brilliant accompaniment:

This is heady energetic stuff with a brash punky genetic code that is utterly satisfying. ‘Computer Future Part 1’ is out now through the legendary Coolin by Sound label and available to download and stream here.

You can catch the band playing a free gig this weekend in Brisbane – see details below. What a bargain!