ENOLA’s ‘Strange Comfort’ is a story told in spit, rather than in song.
Punching through an eerie sci-fi whistle, one that evokes drunken early morning walks home through ghostly streets, the pace constantly climbing into a sprint. With the riffs of 80s post-punk, and the vim of contemporaries such as Fontaines D.C, ENOLA swerves their sound away from the typical cis-masculinity of the genre. They exist outside of our premeditated and binary expectations of ‘punk’ sound. This is not IDLES. This is not Amyl and the Sniffers. This is something else entirely.
The video feels liminal, like we’re observers in purgatory with present day ENOLA speeding through old haunts from a past life. It feels like watching something akin to Human Traffic (1999) or Trainspotting (1996), filled with nostalgia, adrenaline, and ultimately, life. The director, Triana Hernandez, said of the collaboration with Enola: “This video is inspired by various visceral memories from their teenage years. Rather than recreating the specific moments, we wanted it to feel like a dream state with snippets that tip toe around those memories. I reckon it was more important for us to focus on the feel of those flashbacks- feelings that oscillate between dark and soft, unhinged and light – and everything all at once with a strong lust for life vibe.” It’s also important to note that they made a point to credit the Wurundjeri land they filmed upon in Melbourne.
Our teenaged years can be something that is truly chaotic and surreal. Flawed but ultimately beautiful; and ENOLA captures this in both sound and vision. Our concept of identity and maturity is so easily shaped by outside influences, and many of those influences are heavily on the side of worse, rather than for the better. ENOLA chants throughout the track: ‘there’s a strange comfort in us all going through the same,’ and I couldn’t agree more.
You can either despair at the choices that youth presented you with, or you take comfort in the people you meet along the way who also kicked and screamed their way into early adulthood. Savouring the unique worldview that your shared experiences can grant you. ‘Strange Comfort’ makes reminiscing and introspection into an art form, and ENOLA is a lit fuse with potential for the most incredible fireworks.\
Photo by Jason Morey
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