NEWS: ACY Produces a Video Nasty in Belfast

VIDEO NASTY is the brand new single by Belfast-based retrowave project, Alpha Chrome Yayo (ACY), from the recently released Company Man EP.

A horror-tinged synth celebration of late-night VHS shockers, Video Nasty takes inspiration from movies by infamous masters of terror such as John Carpenter and Lucio Fulci, and their squelchy-synthed brain-twisting scores.

Lauded by the likes of BBC Radio Foyle’s Stephen McCauley on his Electric Mainline show, it’s available to buy on Bandcamp and iTunes now, or to stream on Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music and a bunch more platforms.

The single itself really hits that sweet Eighties spot that particular Forty Somethings will understand as they dove through the local video rentals for the iconic and the most terrible B-Movies in the horrors, Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Kung Fu genres. The Eighties have been on the crest of a nostalgia wave with a number of Eighties inspired movies and tv series like Stranger Things, and Kung Fury.  This little treat is quite a nice addition.

Makes you wonder if ACY dream of electric sheep?

ACY is a recently conceived Belfast-based project. Ostensibly future synth it’s outrun, it’s retrowave … it’s whatever you want to call it. It’s one man with some synths, some guitars and sometimes a sax. It was born in the smoke-filled arcades, raised on neon-drenched streets, fast cars and neuromancy.

“VHS has been a huge part of my life since I can remember”, says ACY. “My first memory is of watching Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure on video cassette, and it had a huge effect on me. As I grew up, the local video rental became my sanctuary. I would look forward to going all week, and with much cajoling my parents would bring me on a Friday and very patiently wait while I pored over the aisles of tapes. I can smell it now, even though the place closed down fifteen years ago.

Horror tapes became my true passion, the gorier the better. Lurid-looking imports from Italy and beyond, gruesome slashers from ‘80s Hollywood, all great. Fulci, Bava, Raimi, Ferrara, I loved ‘em all. I still do. The sound of these things too, like nothing I’d ever heard before. Squelching basses and shrieking synths, tailor-made to warp your mind. And it’s not just the movies either, it’s video itself. Cassettes have a tangibility, a tactility that downloads and discs don’t. They have moving parts, they have mechanics – they have guts.

VIDEO NASTY is my ode to these tapes.”