The otherworldly movements of Los Angeles dance outfit WIFE cast a meditative spell over The Acid’s synaesthetic music video from filmmaker Dugan O’ Neal and the band’s Ry X. The Acid have so far built up a following as an anonymous totem of haunting vocals and dismembered electronics, but are today revealed as the LA-based singer-songwriter Ry X, Team Supreme collaborator and veteran electronic artist Steve Nalepa and Grammy-nominated British dance producer and DJ Adam Freeland. “I have always felt very connected to aesthetics in line with music—they are part of each other and the whole,” says Ry X of the singular audio-visual vision for this new musical collaboration. “When we came up with the idea for the video, we brought WIFE into the fold before all else.” Captured against the dramatic backdrop of the Santa Monica Mountains at the end of last year, WIFE’s Kristen Leahy, Jasmine Albuquerque and Gabriella Vincenza Cataldo star as the choreographers, performers and costume designers of “Basic Instinct”. “I love creating visually dramatic narratives, but the one through line is a subtle sense of surrealism or magic,” says O’Neal, whose varied work joins the dots between web comedy series L.A Rangers and music promos for TV On The Radio, The Glitch Mob and Ellie Goulding. “Ry really pushed to make it as simple as possible and let the song be the narrative. It definitely reignited my relationship with music videos.”

Can you tell us about the serendipitous genesis of the band?
The Acid: Ry X and Adam had known each other for years before we made an unlikely reconnection in Los Angeles. Steve and Adam already had a studio session booked just hours after. We all followed the flow of the synchronistic timing and jumped in.

What is your musical approach?
TA: It can be a hard thing to strip something to its core. Musically, some people tend to be afraid of space, they want to put a lot of things in to hear it bigger and better. Most of the time, allowing space for the critical elements makes them much more potent.

How about the visuals for “Basic Instinct”?
TA: We birthed the concept in the first days of being in the studio together, inspired by the photos that our friend Toby Burrows made for his Fallen series. From there it was a collaboration and the process took care of itself.

The Acid EP is released April 14 on Infectious Music and The Acid's live debut is London's Chat's Palace March 31