Pale Eyes

A while back, Ben McCarthy's Pale Eyes project put out their debut mixtape Sweatshop. Now, the experimental collective has unveiled a clip for mixtape cut "Philosophka," and you can check it out first, right here on Exclaim.ca.

The video for "Philosophka" features McCarthy performing the heavy electro tune, accompanied by a pair of contemporary dancers. Flashing lights add a sense of darkness and urgency to the repeated crooned refrain of "Don't fuck me over."

It was shot by director Paz Ramirez and edited by Marco Fuentes. Give it a watch in the player below. -

Toronto’s Pale Eyes continue their reign of electronic dominance with a simple but effective new video. Featuring Saralyn and Laurieann Stevens, dancers who occasionally accompany the band for live performances, the frantic song comes to life and just might need to come with a seizure warning. While the act’s absurdly-tall Benjamin McCarthy performs the song (just try to leave this video with “Don’t fuck me over” not struck in your head), the dancers strike increasingly impressive poses as the screen begins to flash. -

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Pale Eyes are a Toronto based nouveau-industrial band who create sample-based commentaries on modern life. At times disturbing (and quite NSFW), the video for KLTR KMA makes us take a look at how troubling imagery can develop a second life on the internet. The band is a collaboration between Ben McCarthy (Archivist) Lisa J. Smith (the Dears and Pony Up) and only recently came to our attention, but their mixtape from last year is a must-listen.

Don’t forget, their frequent collaborator Lido Pimienta (whose otherworldly voice is featured on this track) is playing the next Silent Shout with Jef Barbara, Bizzarh, Twist and Nyssa. - Silent Shout

In what's surely one of the stranger music videos we've seen in some time, electronic experimentalists Pale Eyes have unveiled a clip for their song "The Consolation of Action" from the recent album Sweatshop.

The clip for this noisy electronic cut begins with a shot of someone dancing with a Canadian flag. Things get meta around the 20-second mark, when we see a YouTube clip of that same shot before the cursor selects "The Consolation of Action" in iTunes. Most of the rest of the video then plays on the screen of a computer (running OSX, incidentally), where we see more dancing via open Safari windows. In other words, it looks a bit like the video equivalent of a Liz Phair or M.I.A. album cover.

The clip was created by Lido Pimienta and Tough Guy Mountain. Pale Eyes explained in an email, "In it you'll see a group of art school students grapple with a repressed lust for eating cake, and a golden lady twerking at a Canada Day party. It's weirder then it sounds, I promise." They aren't kidding. Watch it below. - Exclaim.ca

I’m always weary when I get something someone calls a “mixtape” but this thing by Toronto collective Pale Eyes is rad. They describe themselves as “a loose collective of musicians fronted by Ben McCarthy (formerly of Archivist), including Lisa J. Smith Lisa (formerly of the Dears and Pony Up), Sarah McCarthy, and Lido Pimienta”. Their mixtape Sweatshop is glitchy, hypnotic and addicting. - Ride the Tempo

Down on a cement floor with crossed legs and a weapon of choice. Wood panel walls or cheap, cracking brick makes the small room seem smaller. That cold sensation which seeps up your spine from that floor stained in water and black circles of god-knows-what. Sweatshop, a mix-tape by Toronto duo Pale Eyes (Ben McCarthy and Lisa J. Smith) is the kind of album to listen to in a room like that.

Beginning with "Waves & Radiation", it's the perfect segue. A taste of what is to be the entire album. Raw. Chaotic. Layered pieces of beauty.

Then you slide into "kltr kma", a Reznor-esque piece of ska, but rich. "Empathy Exhaustion" borders on Alternative but stays in that vein of Industrial with its raw sound and effects.

Sweatshop is brilliant and full of hooks, "Philosophka" should be radio-bound, except for the censor nightmare of the repeated "Don't fuck me over" line. Which is a shame because I would defy anyone not to dig on this tune.

Listen to Sweatshop, preferably on a cement floor. You must catch its chaos and beauty. - Toronto Music Scene

Toronto’s Pale Eyes brings us something really unique, a funky, rough-hewn electro-bop that feels really refreshing (and helps us work toward that place of trying desperately to find good Canadian electronic music). Very analogue, very fun. - Softsynth

Toronto's Pale Eyes have risen from the ashes of a number of local bands. - Snob's Music

Pale Eyes - "This Coward's Theory of Beauty". A two-minute ghost story: a figure rises from the cinders and he has seen the day after tomorrow, when the sun hides in a warehouse, when the cars are soundless, when she has cut off all her hair. The ghost's voice is like a tape run backwards, a drowning, a hollow log. A thing can be ruining even as it is admired. A beautiful song lies rotting on the ground. ["This Coward's Theory of Beauty" samples Colin Stetson. Toronto's Pale Eyes includes former members of Archivist. - Said The Gramophone

By Ian Gormely

People loved the churning bass sax vibes of Colin Stetson's New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges, especially the track "Judges," so the only thing more surprising than the fact that someone has sampled the track for their own use, is that it took this long to happen.

The group in question are Pale Eyes, a Toronto-based quartet featuring one-time Montrealers Lisa J. Smith (formerly of Pony Up, the Dears and Archivist) and her Archivist bandmate Ben McCarthy.

Their song "This Coward's Theory of Beauty" loops the deep burbling of Stetson's original to form the backbone of a track that sounds like a Kid A B-side.

You can stream and/or download the song below, where you can also watch their clip of two kids making out. - exclaim.ca