Tame Impala released their latest album, The Slow Rush, back in 2020 after much anticipation from fans. Due to the pandemic, they haven’t been able to tour behind the album quite as much as both fans and the band might’ve hoped, but recently they announced a slew of tour dates for 2022, and shared a brand new song, “No Choice.”
And Christmas might be over, but today the band also shared a new collaboration with Sepatu Compass on a very limited edition shoe collection that would make an incredible gift for any Tame Impala fan. “Hey Indonesia, I’m honoured to announce this very special collab with @sepatucompass, where they transformed my music into graphics! Super cool idea. Very limited run. Hope you manage to grab some x,” Kevin Parker captioned a post on Instagram. The shoes collection, which is dubbed “Artificial Vibration,” is available on the Indonesian site, Tokopedia, and they’re selling out incredibly quickly.
Here’s a bit more about each shoe, copied from the screenshots shared on Instagram.
Titled “Artificial Vibration,” this collaboration presents a collection of shoes and apparel that manifest the energy, sound, and soul of Tame Impala’s music. Songs are converted into wearable products that can be worn or kept as memorabilia by music fans and fashion connoisseurs alike.
“Artificial Vibration” is the synthesis of two different entities: digital and energy. This collaboration follows the journey of extracting data from three Tame Impala songs and converting that data into a spectrum of artificially-created patterns and colors. These visual elements are manifested into a shoe collection defined by three designs:
Spectrum 01
Waveform
Retrograde Low
(Tame Impala — “The Less I Know The Better”)
The sound waves of this song are reconstructed into concentric shapes based on five attributes: Warmth, Dynamic, Clarity, Flow, & Fade. The spectrum captures music in its most basic state.Spectrum 02
Tie-Dye
Retrograde Hi Decon
(Tame Impala — “Yes I’m Changing”)Reminiscent of the classic Windows Media Player music visualizer. Here, music is translated into a dynamic artwork that vividly expresses the vibe and mood of a song.
Spectrum 03
Spectrogram
Retrograde Hi Decon
(Tame Impala — “Lost In Yesterday”)
A visual representation of sound as it changes over time. An accumulation of a data set that is translated into a spectrogram that brings to life the mood and aura of the song.Furthermore, each Spectrum feature details unique to the particular song it resents. When scanned, a QR code on the shoe label will immediately link to an audio file of the song. A line from the song’s lyric is inscribed on the shoe, while the transparent outsells contain a print of the sounds waves. There is also a pocket hidden inside the shoe’s tongue that can hold small items as a practical, fun detail.
Perhaps if the collection sells out before American fans get a chance to cop a pair, the band will re-up the collaboration and have more shoes made in the future. After all, it’s never too early to start shopping for next Christmas.