Hear the darkly grooving new single from Optic Sink, “Don’t Look Down”

Nate Packard

On Oct. 31, Memphis trio Optic Sink will release their third album, Lucky Number, via Feel It. It’s produced and recorded by Caufield Schnug of Sweeping Promises, and it’s a dark blend of dancefloor-friendly rhythms and minimal wave production, blending the baggy grooves of Primal Scream with the synth-laden contemporary post-punk of bands such as Total Control and The Serfs. Today, the group shares the first single, “Don’t Look Down,” which is both haunted and hedonistic, fit for a goth club or The Hacienda alike. Hear it below and check out the song’s new video, directed by Micky Thodarson.

The band’s Natalie Hoffman said in a statement about the new song, “I was [in Nashville] working on a TV show and ended up snowed in at a Candlewood Suites by the highway that overlooked the train tracks. To get out of the hotel room, I would go down to the parking lot and watch the trains that went by in the snow. I became sort of obsessed with them. I thought there was something both beautiful and eerie about their movement and sounds.”