Premiere: David Vassalotti – Zahir

Following 2011’s beautiful Book of Ghosts (Vinyl Rites), the multi-talented artist David Vassalotti, also known as guitarist of Tampa’s greatest export Merchandise, is releasing his second full-length LP Broken Rope with NY label Wharf Cat Records. For those familiar with Vassalotti’s first release, this new record is not only very welcome, but also completely worth the wait.

We’re very excited to premiere a new track and video Zahir – Zahir meaning the surface, the tangible as opposed to the metaphysical. It has the power to create an obsession, take over ones mind and blur the fine contours of reality.

For the video, Vassalotti edited and manipulated film clips of movies from across the Muslim world – Tunisia, Iran, Mauritania – that deal with this zahir-like obsession for objects and people. He comments on the distorted obsession his country has with the Islamic world, while editing the footage into a psychedelic fever dream and spitting the words in our faces – urging us to just take what we want. As the artists puts it “They chase their obsessions, and not all endings are happy ones.” 

On Broken Rope, Vassalotti taps into his own literary and musical background. No song sounds like the previous, it’s a continuous surprise drawing its listener in further and further. This record is a massively idiosyncratic document of our time – very smart, deeply personal and perfectly executed. Sure, you can quote us on that.

Broken Rope is out on Wharf Cat Records in February, you can pre-order it here. 

Subbacultcha members might remember David was once kind enough to accompany a photo essay by Lonneke van der Palen with some beautiful writing about the American West.