The music industry has its way of bringing various corners of automotive culture out in the open. And some of the best experiences come from rising stars, as is the case with British Electronic Drum and Bass musician and producer Venjent. For one, the artist recently released a brief but intense music video about the flaming exhaust of a Lexus LS 400.
Venjent has a massive talent for turning everyday sounds into bass-driven music, mixing bits that belong to genres like drum and bass, house, and techno. As for his videos, many of them combine footage of the event that generated the original sounds he uses to make a beat with closeups of his face—with or without his now-trademark minimalist black shades, he’s as expressive as you can be.
For this month, the artist took on the challenge of releasing a new video every day until Christmas for what he calls an Advenjent Calendar. And when somebody on Instagram sent him a video of a Lexus LS 400 riding the rev limiter of its iconic 1UZ-FE V8 out in the desert in Oman, Venjent turned this into a catchy clip (hat tip to Instagram user mishayiq for the original).
Sure, the first-gen LS was made to build a reputation for Lexus as a Mercedes hunter in the US (it was the brand’s debut model), but these modern classic luxury sedans have a huge fanbase in the Middle East—have you seen their lifted Mustangs, Challengers and Camaros?
Sometimes, people take advantage of the 4.0L V8’s mod-friendly nature and build the engine to the point where the factory output of 250 hp seems like child’s play. Heck, this fire-spitting LS 400 seems to have a valved exhaust where one tip is linked to a straight pipe, while the other probably features a more civilized setup for urban driving.
The lyrics? If you’ve got feels to maintain/Stay in your lane. Sure, it’s short. But if this isn’t a way of addressing the dangerous Arab drifting some drivers still pull in places like Oman, I don’t know what is—as multiple local outlets reported, the Royal Oman Police arrested two drivers in the country for this sort of dangerous driving just back in June.
Also known as Hajwalah, this practice has led to numerous accidents. It often sees drivers speeding on public roads—sometimes in and out of traffic—and then spinning their vehicles seemingly out of control, only to recover them moments later.
Venjent’s R U Guna Move is all about the motorcycle muffler situation
This isn’t the first time when Venjent has made an automotive culture-related video where he references a problematic phenomenon. I’m referring to R U Guna Move here, which Venjent released on YouTube a couple of months ago.
In fact, this clip, which is about motorcyclists that just sit there, revving their engines—not that different from what some drivers do—is how I came across Venjent’s art and let me just say that YouTube’s algorithm did its job well that time.
As he explains on Facebook, Venjent went from under 1,000 followers in early 2022 to over 1 million followers across various platforms in 2023. And if you check his website for albums, EPs, and singles, the oldest published work dates back to 2020.
The Brit has performed at top-tier festivals like We Are Fstvl and Spring Break Amsterdam Festival. And I can only wonder if he’s willing to thrill his audience with the kind of sounds—or silence—produced by electric vehicles.