Watch Yassou's Haunting, Slippery Video for 'To Win / Youngblood'

Yassou is a Bay Area art-pop band led by vocalist/bassist Lillie Bytheway Hoy, and we’re premiering the second video in their five-track EP/art project, for a song called “To Win/Youngblood.”

Directed by Hoy and James Jackson, another band member, the video evokes a set of strange, flickering memories, abruptly interrupting and outshining each other. The synchronized swimming shots, beginning around 2:30, are particularly worth a look. (The swimmers are members of the Aqualillies, if you’re curious.)

According to Hoy, via email: “I have been inspired by Kanye West on many occasions, this video nods to his film, Runaway, which I furiously thought he must have stolen from my 16 year old daydreams, but I forgave because he did them justice.”

The five-track EP/art project will include 5 videos, one for each song. In the project bio, the band writes:

The band made this project not only to express a set of feelings and ideas within them, but also with the clear intention to share them with others. This was made for the people who will be able to escape in it; to fall in and through the story; for those who will take the time to absorb the images, and the sounds. The people who aren’t afraid to be overcome by emotion, praise or disgust, confusion or ambiguity, or to be consumed by an idea, or thought, are also the people who understand the fragility of the ones Yassou love, and ultimately, the fragility of themselves.

The first track/video combo, “Fall Again,” was released in August. The next in the series, “To Sink,” will premiere on September 24.