If Chelsea Wolfe spent a lot of time out in the Southwestern deserts of the US and listened to a lot of old school blues, the resulting sound would probably be quite close to the music of Betty Black, the project of New York musician Sylvia Gordon. “Heartless”, her latest tune, is a brooding affair, capturing the sexual energy of rock ‘n’ roll at its sleaziest with a healthy dose of blues rhythm. The highly creative Black directed and edited the video to “Heartless” herself, pairing the song’s enigmatic energy with a striking contrast between psychedelic flourishes of color and heavy shadows.
Betty Black had this tantalizing thing to say to PopMatters about the music video: “I always love going out West to the desert to shoot or hang out. A used meth pipe found in the crack of a Cadillac bed, desert heat dry wind ‘n’ sand, a broken heart with no will to mend, an unplanned Tinder encounter gone South, singin’ a saucy rendition of ‘Just a Gigolo’ at Joshua Tree Saloon karaoke. Sometimes the behind the scenes would make for a better video.”
“Heartless” is out tomorrow, 11 November, via Frau Pink Productions/KID Recordings. The track will find its LP home on the forthcoming album Valley Low, whose release date has yet to be determined.