The new single from 1003 "THE SHAPES" : new single + music video out now !

I'm delighted to present the new single from 1003, a new addition to the Vous Connaissez? roster, which has completely blown me away. Hailing from Marseilles, this avant-garde and (I dare say!) visionary quartet delivers pop with strong industrial, electro, and rock influences, paying particular attention to production and performance. Their sophomore EP, 0.3 (the successor to 1.0 released in 2024), will be out on January 30th, and today we’re treated with a first sneak peak entitled "THE SHAPES", and its music video, which promises a bold and uncompromising approach. The closing track of this 6-song EP showcases the band's mastery, as well as their ability to shake up their audience and take them into unexpected territory... all while remaining relatively accessible! Recommended for fans of Nine Inch Nails, Blackstar era David Bowie, but also Thom Yorke or James Blake.

With "THE SHAPES", 1003 adopts an abrupt song structure, without verses or choruses, but offering a succession of vignettes. The atmosphere is tense, frenetic, and excessively syncopated, yet embellished by the almost spectral sensuality that emanates from singer Jessy Bengold's microphone. The rhythm evokes the influence of gqom, a completely deconstructed subgenre of techno originating in South Africa, before evolving into a kind of Afrobeat on steroids. You let loose and let your body react until peak time, where this haunting melody emerges like a leitmotif, destined to reappear in other songs by the quartet. Like a symbol of light emerging from darkness. Composed after the lyrics were written, this single is designed to follow the narrative thread unfolded by Jessy: a modern reinterpretation of Plato's allegory of the cave, in the era of doom-scrolling, post-truth, and the monetization of attention. This is particularly evident in the obsessive repetition of the "the shapes and the shades" line. The band’s frontman tells us more:

I feel that the fact that "THE SHAPES" was conceived around an unconventional structure is palpable live, and that it's never played the same way twice. It's a track very receptive to its environment. In front of a completely wild crowd, we'll tend to perform it in a more intense, brutal, and aggressive way. But if the atmosphere is more zen, we adapt with a more introspective version. Its deconstructed and noisy aspect echoes the inner chaos reflected in the lyrics. And in terms of arrangements, we find that same collaborative dynamic present in all our other tracks, but perhaps even more so in this one. I came in with lyrics and some ideas, but each member contributed, especially David on the rhythmic, which he pushed to its absolute limit. Martin and Louise did an incredible job on the sound design, starting from the few melodic and rhythmic elements I had provided. So it's a track that truly reflects all that collective arrangement work

To illustrate this first excerpt from 0.3, 1003 unveils a conceptual video, which is just a glimpse of the band’s artistic vision. Because the one planned for "THE END", expected in January, will go even further. Bur for now on, "THE SHAPES" was created using unused footage from its successor. Before Florian Castells' camera, a mass of dancers struggles, symbolizing a sense of belonging to a social group, from which it is relatively difficult to break free. This is a further nod to the aforementioned Platonic allegory, as Jessy explains:

This video puts into perspective all the themes evoked in "THE SHAPES." Dancers who symbolize a form of vital force expressed through movement, but within a closed, confined, and dark space. This reflects the dissonance between the inner vitality, which can sometimes be brutal and which we often choose to conceal, and the true face of the individual in society, which doesn't openly display this brutality. A constant confrontation, in short. These images convey the idea that reality, which we often mistakenly take for truth, frequently reaches us from an angle we don't truly choose. The light that illuminates something also necessarily masks what it doesn't illuminate. By making something visible, it also renders something invisible.

I invite you to discover 1003 with "THE SHAPES" without further delay, and this video which is definitely worth watching:

1003 - THE SHAPES (Official Video)