Premiere: Loah & Bantum are exploring the duality of modern romance on ‘NGLA’

Words: Dylan Murphy

Director: Ellius Grace
Cinematographer: JJ Rolfe & Keith Pendred
Choreography: Stephanie Dufresne & Tobi Balogun
Featuring: Loah, Stephanie Dufresne, Tobi Balogun, Angel Hart, Victoria Garnett, Molly
Editor: John Cutler
Colour Grade: Kath Raisch at Company 3
Stylist: Sinead Kelly
Makeup: Niall Durack
Sound Design: Brian Fallon
Title Design: Cian Ryan
Camera Assistant: Ivan Moloney
Production Assistant: Susannah Appleby
Sincere Thanks: You’re Only Gorgeous, Violet Ogden, Jessica Ryan, Molly Bracken, Andrew Thornton

We are delighted to premiere the compelling new video for Loah and Bantum’s ‘NGLA’. Directed by Ellius Grace it explores the duality of the human experience through interpretative dance. Shot in the mountains of Wicklow, Loah’s affirmations flow through serene and naturalistic settings as she wrestles with her competing internal thoughts.

There’s no getting around it, 2020 has been plagued by an overbearing sense of monotony. Rather than dancing to the changeable rhythm of life, our day-to-day existence has been restricted to a sequence of predictable moves. In spite of the current circumstances, Loah and Bantum have teamed up for the video for ‘NGLA’ that celebrates the duality of the human experience.

Directed by Ellius Grace, the video explores modern romance as Loah’s competing inner thoughts are expressed by dancers in naturalistic settings.

I got really into the concept of the “Sad Banger” over the two years listening to a lot of NAO, The Internet and Tame Impala. I feel like some of the greatest 20th century masterpieces of pop and beyond are songs with melancholy to them lyrically, but sonically have this bright, high tempo energy.

Loah

Flowing on Bantum’s grandiose percussion and squelching synths, the juxtaposition of Loah’s experience plays out in vast landscapes with the accompanying movement indebted as much to cynicsm as it is to sincerity.

Speaking on the video Loah said, “I got really into the concept of the “Sad Banger” over the two years listening to a lot of NAO, The Internet and Tame Impala. I feel like some of the greatest 20th century masterpieces of pop and beyond are songs with melancholy to them lyrically, but sonically have this bright, high tempo energy. Robyn is great at that, Blood Orange, Marvin Gaye – even Dancing in the Dark by Springsteen is a sad banger! It’s the most human thing to me, to hold two apparently different emotional realities at once.”

“Ruairi sent me the track for NGLA when we were working on stuff and I had separately written a super broody, emo, singer-songwriter tune that I assumed would never see the light of day, because in that form it felt too direct and wallowy to me. But with this beat it just became something I adored to sing and ended up making light of the whole concept, turning it into something I wanted to move to.”

Click here to watch our previous premiere for Rosie Barrett’s short No Hesitation.