Rising UK artist Martha Skye Murphy is gearing up to release her second EP of 2020 (and third overall), Yours Truly, on November 13. We're now premiering the new EP's second single, "Self Tape," along with its video that Martha made with Waterbaby. All of Martha's songs are a little different from each other, and this one's a haunting, minimal, bare-bones song that you keeps you hooked for its seven-minute running time with nothing more than Martha's voice, piano, and some ambient atmosphere. About the video, Martha tells us:

Our online identities are often misinterpreted as being a window into an HD version of ourselves, where our life, character, interests and desires are compressed into neat squares ready to be digested. We are lusting for holograms of ourselves as though constructing a genetically engineered child. It’s scary that we seem to be levitating in this digital self, where fiction is perceived as reality and judgment is expressed as ‘yea or nay’.The central concept I wanted to explore in the video was how the lines between our fantasies, realities, desires and memories are increasingly blurred. I wanted to question whether the autonomy within objectification is held by the subject, the beholder or an external force directing both: a historically developed and developing societal view (this is where algorithms come into play I guess). When Waterbaby and I first spoke we almost combusted with cinematic allusions to make, which I will leave to you to uncover. Waterbaby, who are as close as sisters to me, know me inside out and we share views on pretty much everything so they were the perfect film makers to realise all the above. Their discreet nod toward much more than I have described and creation of this perfectly fake-real space should hopefully leave a bitter sweet taste in your thirsty mouth, situating the audience in a position which you just can’t resist, you pervert.

Waterbaby add:

"Self Tape" explores the complex power dynamics that operate within the male gaze and plays with the idea of who is watching who. Identity is in flux and the pressure of female objectification is scrutinised. The video moves from an eerie, woozy peep-show reality into a glitchy dream world filled with idiosyncratic characters. Digital and VHS footage collide throughout like past and present, fantasy and real life. The format of the film is split in half much like the two way mirror, the voyeur and subject. However, when we break through the mirror we find the gaze has been subverted. Perhaps the viewer has been played all along.

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