French Post-Punk Act CROY Debut Video for “Halloween” - Gothic Radio Station

From warm, sunny Toulouse in the south of France comes the frozen confections of post-punk crooners CROY. Comprised of Jules Maison (Cathedrale, Departure Kids) and Mathis Kolkoz (Blind Delon, Frust, Balafres), the two locals blend a Manchester sense of stoicism with absurdist French detachment.

Riffing off the eerie guitar lines of The Cure’s “A Forest” and breaking it down into a minimalist jangle, their new offering “Halloween” is a ruthlessly mechanical, slightly deranged, and highly catchy song. We also hear elements of The Clash, Plastic Bertrand, DEVO, and a sleepy B-52s in their sound. There’s something unsettling about their aloof delivery with such high-energy backing vocals, hovering somewhere between a Top of the Pops showcase and a funeral dirge.

Their accompanying video, directed by DanTV, is a fun, glitchy homage to mid-80s MTV showing the stonefaced pair belting lyrics about doing nothing. It is apathy set to music; the perfect soundtrack for the strange liminal state of a chaotic modern world. Every day we wake up, wondering what it’s all about, where the time flies, and what is to come. While distinctly French, there is also almost an Iron Curtain sense of Cold War-style doom underlying the existential words.