Cinema Novo is what happens when a band tries to make a movie…or, when filmmakers start a band.

Atlanta-based Cinema Novo (whose name is borrowed from the 1960s Brazilian film movement) finds their home blending progressive punk, world rhythms, math rock, and psychedelic ambience to form an intricate sonic mutiny. Then, they bring their music to life through film. The result is an audio-visual fusion of the group’s wildly ranging influences into a single common vision.

Moving pictures and music are inextricably tied, with every scene connected to a musical moment in time, every sound connected to its visual counterpart. The group’s current project, Seven Headed Lion, is a musical film series connecting modern social conflict with the ancient mythology of different cultures from around the world.

The second offering from Seven Headed Lion is the often jarring and always captivating new video for “Isonade.” Shot in stark black and white, the video offers a dark look into the tumultuous world of two female lovers shacked up in a rundown motel room. Their affair rides the line of passion and pain. What begins as a romantic embrace soon devolves into full blown conflict. The dualistic themes are artfully embraced in the blacks and whites of the film, the calm and the chaos, even the skin tones and lingerie.

As powerful as the video portion is, the song is the engine that powers this machine. With Matthew Klem’s wall of fuzz bass, Shawn Moeckly’s frantic drum back beats, and a dissonant array of guitars by Christopher Richardson creating the canvas, lead singer Haseena Peera fires off line after line of vicious melodies that perfectly capture the fury brought to life in “Isonade.”

Connect with Cinema Nova: Website   Facebook   Twitter   Instagram