Video Premiere: Irma Vep – It Runs Slow
Watch the new video from Northwest psych-folkster Edwin Stevens, aka Irma Vep
Originally hailing from Llanfairfechan in North Wales, Stevens later relocated to his current home of Manchester, where the Irma Vep story began to develop. Often a moniker for sparse, off-kilter solo efforts, sometimes a collective moniker for a heroically experimental band that also includes Oldham troubador Kiran Leonard (among others), Irma Vep is now a firmly established cornerstone of the city's ever-active DIY scene.
With a prodigious tour schedule that has thus far taken him to Europe and the US, Stevens somehow finds the time to make records in between; new track It Runs Slow is taken from his forthcoming album No Handshake Blues, due for release in January 2017. With a homemade video inspired by obscure autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) techniques, it's the perfect summation of his familiar yet unsettling take on classic songwriting tropes.
As Stevens himself says: "I usually get to sleep by watching ASMR videos on YouTube; massages, chiropodist, etc, and stumbled across this Hungarian stick massage practise. I was shocked that watching something so painful happen to someone relaxed me."
Catch Irma Vep live:
7 Dec – Liverpool, Naked Lunch Cafe
16 Dec – Manchester, Fuel Cafe (w/ Cult Party, Jo Rose)
7 Jan – Liverpool, house show (w/Jon Collin + dbh)
8 Jan – London, venue TBC
9 Jan – Brighton, The Hope and Ruin (w/ Jon Collin)
10 Jan – Bath, The Nest (w/Jon Collin)
12 Jan – Stoke, Pilgrims Pit (w/ Jon Collin)
13 Jan – Sheffield, DIMA (w/ Jon Collin)
14 Jan – Manchester, Fuel (w/ Jon Collin + dbh)
28 Jan – Manchester, Soup Kitchen (w/ Duds, The Foetals...)
8 Mar – Bath, St James Wine Vaults (w/Jon Collin)
10 Mar – Manchester, Gullivers (w/Jon Collin)
14 Apr – Salford, Islington Mill (Fat Out Fest)
No Handshake Blues is released via Faux Discx and Comfortable on a Tightrope on 13 Jan 2017