Dee En’s Flamboyant ‘Darling’ Video Blends Dance and Synth-Pop

New Delhi/Goa act Dee En traverse spacey synth-pop and bring in the dance moves to back it up in the colorful music video for “Darling,” the first single off their upcoming EP Saturn Return.

Collaborating with the artist Fursat FM aka Rohit Gupta (from alternative act Peter Cat Recording Co.) on trumpet, Dee En’s Saurav Debnath and Aditya Kapoor aka Flux Vortex (with songwriter and producer Ashrey Goel) turn on the charm with “Darling.” Far from their lo-fi, psychedelic 2018 EP Whoopsie Daisy and 2019’s dream-pop Poppin’ EP, this new release has the band unveil a different sonic direction, one that’s guided by groovy dance music and synth-laden electronic.

The video for “Darling,” shot and directed by Niharika Chauhan, Prabhakar Duwarah, and Ali Monis Naqvi, centers on a house party where the protagonists begin to grapple with changing feelings, about themselves and those around them. There’s a house party where Dee En’s Debnath is seen mouthing a lyric, as well as Fursat bringing out the trumpet to add a soulful horn section to the song. The video was also inspired by dance forms like breaking and krumping, according to the band. To that end, they called on B-girl Johanna and her crewmate Shane Mendiz from the Break Brahma Crew, along with performance artist Akanksha Dev. “The video was shot in Goa and makes an effort to tie in the track’s lyrical themes of identity, isolation, and self-discovery into a stylized visual accompaniment for the song,” the band shares.

Saturn Return is a six-track EP slated for release on February 14th, one that also features the likes of singer-producer Sijya on the track “Troglodyte.” For Dee En, the EP marks a “return to orbit” after a two-year hiatus. The band promise a “refined, yet uninhibited sound.” A note on their Bandcamp pre-order for Saturn Return adds, “For this new phase, we bid goodbye to jangly guitars and instead, let a bold and lucid vocal delivery take center stage. In contrast to our fuzzy, noisy, dream-pop, Saturn Return plays with clean layers, utilizing a modern hip-hop and 80s electronic-inspired sound in six unique ways.”

Thematically, they draw from the planet Saturn and its place in the galaxy and how “one round trip” on its orbit is 30 years, a period in which humans can go from birth to adulthood. The Bandcamp note says, “Now older, as we grapple with love, fulfillment, meaning, and control, our music is a sanctuary for the questions we can’t ask in life. Each track digs into the psyche underneath the psychedelic, contemplating our distance from and connection to the world. Like our sound, these themes are irreparably enriched by time—not the mere four years since our last release, but the almost thirty years of our life here on earth.” Track titles include “Dad’s अचार,” “Margot,” “Prettier Beings” and “What’s the Real Truth?”

Dee En performed in advance of the Saturn Return release with a show at Bengaluru’s Fandom at Gilly’s Redefined on January 11th, with more shows coming up to promote the record.