AWKWARD MOMENTS BLEND ELECTRONIC, DREAM, AND ALT POP ON “LIFE ON VENUS”

Awkward Moments, the London art-house duo of composer and sound artist Mimi Xu and multi-instrumentalist and vocalist MAGUIRE, have paired their new single “Life On Venus” with a visually ambitious video that arguably outshines the song itself. The track is solid, if not entirely groundbreaking, but the accompanying visuals elevate it into something far more striking.

According to the band’s bio, Awkward Moments draws inspiration from boundary-pushing artists like Róisín Murphy and The Knife. That lineage comes through in “Life On Venus,” which is framed as a meditation on reconciliation. It comes from a place of openness, even encouraging psychedelics as a means of forging deeper connections and dismantling barriers.

The real centerpiece, though, is the video. Directed by Norbert Schoerner, it feels like a love letter to 1980s sci-fi, complete with surreal, glitch-driven effects that echo the handmade textures of early special-effects work. Schoerner’s vision transforms the song into a kaleidoscopic narrative of alternate realities and queer awakenings, a layered exploration that lingers long after the music ends.

With “Life On Venus,” Awkward Moments may not reinvent the wheel musically. Still, through the marriage of sound and image, they’ve built something undeniably intriguing — a project where the visuals take on equal, if not greater, weight than the track itself.