My Sunday night bedtime viewing consisted of Netflix’ Wild Wild Country and an unsuspecting first glance at the new video from Ross Wallace Chait, a.k.a. Total Heat. Coincidence? I don’t think so. In it, Chait can be seen traversing the Southern California landscape like a street preacher taken out of his element. “I saw a light,” he proclaims, and a crowd of beguiled yogis follow. The message? “We’ll be alright.” Which is what we all want to hear right now. As a cult leader, Chait exudes trust, but isn’t that how they get you? Yes, but only if getting you is what they’re after: looks like Chait is more interested in his own journey. At the end of the video, he reveals what his roving has led him to: a discovery of his true calling, “the best feeling he’s ever had,” and the thing that makes him feel the most present. Whatever that might be.
“I Saw a Light,” along with b-side “Bought & Sold,” is available now on 7-inch via Wallflower records. The trance-inducing jam is the debut release from Total Heat, which sees Chait (whose more straight-up noise incarnation we wrote about last year, and who used to drum for Girlpool, Winter, and WALTER) abandoning his real name as artistic moniker and employing the services of a full backing band. He is also eager to explore “the experimental sound structures and broke-down song ideas of past solo efforts, while also breaking into new territory of jazz and rock and roll music.” The video for “I Saw a Light” was directed by Jon Weisburst, and we are happy to present it below:
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