“Have we forgotten how to feel,” asks the narrator in Gardens & Villa’s moody new short doc Maximize. Shot beautifully on 35mm and Super 8, it presents Los Angeles as if viewed through the eyes of 1920s avant-garde provocateurs Dziga Vertov and Sergei Eisenstein, giving an insight into the ideas, doubts and reflections swirling around the bands’ heads as they wrote and recorded their new LP, Music For Dogs.
Gardens & Villa’s move from sun-dappled California college town Santa Barbara to a hulking warehouse in East LA has clearly had an effect, taking the synth-driven four-piece to a darker and more introspective place. Where previous records riffed on New Age and Eastern Religion, songwriters Chris Lynch and Adam Rasmussen are now exploring technological alienation, false hopes and obsolescence. “Are machines making me less me, or am I more because of machines,” ponders Maximize’s narrator. “Some day all will be rendered obsolete.”
To document the process of making Music For Dogs, the band brought director David Del Sur and cinematographer SL Perlin on side. “We were not concerned with answering any questions since their answers live on the record,” Del Sur explains. “Our job was to merely convey the mental and physical environment in which the music was created in thus setting up the world that record lives in.”
Ahead of Music For Dogs’ release on August 21 via Secretly Canadian (War on Drugs, SUUNS, Here We Go Magic), Maximize is an arresting opening salvo. Nodding its head to French artist Chris Marker’s science fiction featurette La Jetée, it stakes Gardens & Villa’s grand ambitions, while lifting the lid on their non-linear and contemplative mental universe.
“Our home, our studio, and all of our Los Angeles haunts were captured and explained with a sharpness boarding on clairvoyance,” Adam explains. “The process of writing and recording Music For Dogs is encapsulated brilliantly in this short documentary, Maximize. We hope hope you enjoy this window into our madness and love.”
Music For Dogs from Gardens & Villa is out August 21 on Secretly Canadian.
Latest on Huck
Inside the world’s only inhabited art gallery
The MAAM Metropoliz — Since gaining official acceptance, a former salami factory turned art squat has become a fully-fledged museum. Its existence has provided secure housing to a community who would have struggled to find it otherwise.
Written by: Gaia Neiman
Ideas were everything to David Lynch
Dreamweaver — On Thursday, January 16, one of the world’s greatest filmmakers passed away at the age of 78. To commemorate his legacy, we are publishing a feature exploring his singular creative vision and collaborative style online for the first time.
Written by: Daniel Dylan Wray
“The world always shuns”: Moonchild Sanelly on her new album, underground scenes and abortion rights
Huck’s January interview — Ahead of ‘Full Moon’, her most vulnerable project yet, we caught up with the South African pop star to hear about opening up in her music, confronting her past and her fears for women’s rights in 2025.
Written by: Isaac Muk
Krept & Konan are opening an “inclusive” supermarket
Saveways — With 15,000 sq. ft of space and produce from across the world, the store will cater to Black, Asian and ethnic communities in Croydon.
Written by: Isaac Muk
This erotic zine dismantles LGBTQ+ respectability politics
Zine Scene — Created by Megan Wallace and Jack Rowe, PULP is a new print publication that embraces the diverse and messy, yet pleasurable multitudes that sex and desire can take.
Written by: Isaac Muk
As Tbilisi’s famed nightclubs reawaken, a murky future awaits
Spaces Between the Beats — Since Georgia’s ruling party suspended plans for EU accession, protests have continued in the capital, with nightclubs shutting in solidarity. Victor Swezey reported on their New Year’s Eve reopening, finding a mix of anxiety, catharsis and defiance.
Written by: Victor Swezey