Category Archives: music video

Martin Archer live at The Grapes

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Martin Archer
Martin Archer Live at The Grapes, Sheffield (2006, 85.8MB, 9:52 min)

Great vid made by Jonny Drury of Martin Archer, a unique
& towering figure in British (here I was going to interpolate experimental but that
doesn’t really do justice to the intensely personal soundworld Archer has
forged over the years – a combination of fierce poetry, a huge
intellectual range & hunger & a love affair with sound & how it
can be ordered & dis-ordered & where one now feels he knows
exactly where he’s going, so experimental feels in a way
like an impertinence) music of the past 25 years,
performing at The Grapes pub in his home town of Sheffield, UK.

Hey Ya – OutKast

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HeyYa
Hey Ya (2003, 80MB, 7:36 min)

“Hey Ya!” was a 2003 number-one single recorded by André 3000 of the
hip-hop duo OutKast.
The song’s music video, directed by Bryan Barber, features a performance,
styled in the manner of TV’s black and white era (although it’s in color).
It won the MTV Video Music Awards in 2004 for Video of the Year.

Eddie Whelan/Ruby Kendrick Do Me Right

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domeright.jpg
Do Me Right (2011, 62MB, 2:25 min)

Gosh! this is lovely and Gosh! Eddie Whelan is talented & capable.
We’ve admired his data-moshing skills on a number of occasions
but the man clearly has range and whats the word? – yes –
application. This vid for Ruby Kendrick looks so light and easy
and yet one jusy knows what it cost in time and effort
(and inspiration).
Oh -but worth it, so worth it.

Two from Marcin Rychlicki

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C Point Video
C Point (2011, 32MB, 1:15 min)

cyberhero
Cyber Hero (2011, 43MB, 1:25 min)

My name is Marcin Rychlicki, , I’m 29 years old and
I live in Warsaw. For nearly three years I’ve been
creating videos for the Internet under the names
DJ Gacmaster and GacPax. An important element
of my movies is music. For some of them ,
for example, ‘Cyber Hero’, I composed it myself.
I’m trying to combine traditional music video with
the unconventionality of video art. From 2001
to 2006 I was a drummer in hardcore band C. Point.
I made this video for one of our songs: ‘Today’

*****************************************************

Both pieces great but C Point is a particular delight.
(My prejudice showing through of course, but I don’t
generally associate this musical genre with the kind
of gentle wit on display here.)
Not sure I completely understand Cyber Hero which is
apparently some sort of rejoinder to this (Huh?), but I
love the music.

Robert Ashley/John Sanborn/Kit Fitzgerald

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excerpt from Word Music Fire
excerpt from ‘Word Music Fire’ (1981, 60 MB, 7:45 min)

Found at newmusicbox ,which also has lots of interesting interview footage
with the composer. Despite the low quality of this clip, it suffices to indicate
what a thrilling piece of work this (originally made for TV by Channel 13/WNET)
must be in its entirety.
I’ve been a bit of an Ashley agnostic until now, but this has really whetted my appetite
for more.
Partly it’s that, music aside, the vid by John Sanborn in collaboration with Kit Fitzgerald
from ELECTRONIC ARTS INTERMIX is so great.

Well Did You Evah!?

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Well Did You Ever
Well Did You Evah? (1990, 30MB, 3:45 min)

Staying with Monday’s Iggy Pop theme, maybe you’re all
totally familiar with this but I never saw
it before & I think it is great .
Here he duets with Debbie Harry on the
Cole Porter song Well Did You Evah? as part of an
AIDS fundraiser from 1990.

Crystal Stilts/Kate Thomas – Departure

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Departure
Departure (2009, 34 MB, 4:24 min)

I love this video for two, apparently almost entirely independent
(but maybe, in some strange, deep way, connected) reasons.
First – the music is great. I listen very little popular music these
days (which is why I’m 2 years late with this) as most of it, even
(especially!) the so called indie stuff gives the impression of
having been focus-grouped into bland submission before being let
limply loose not to offend anyone.
This, contrariwise, oozes life & not-giving-a-fuck from every note
(especially the splendidly slightly out of tune vocals; but it’s all a joy).
Secondly, director of the video, Kate Thomas, about whom I know
nothing and could find out no more, had the totally brilliant idea
of simply stringing together some footage of French students
and workers standing up for themselves against the riot cops in 68.
If this all doesn’t make you weep with barely suppressed joy please
check your pulse.

“Toe Jam” by Keith Schofield

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the-bpa-toe
Toe Jam (2009, 23MB, 3:27 min.)

A number of people get naked in “Toe Jam”, The BPA featuring
David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal. Directed by Keith Schofield.

Curt Cloninger –TOM#2

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touch me
Touch Me (2011, 562KB , 2:00 min)

see me
Hear Me (2011, 12MB, 1:11 min)

Second two parts of TOM (an instrumental rock opera remix in four parts)
by Curt Cloninger, of which we posted the first two last week.

Curt Cloninger –TOM

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see me
See Me (2011, 57MB, 6:11 min)

feel me
Feel Me (2011, 11MB, 1:03 min)

Two parts of a rather good new work –
TOM (an instrumental rock opera remix in four parts)
by Curt Cloninger, of whom we are fans.
He remixes the 1975 film of the Who’s rock opera Tommy to striking effect.
I can’t imagine crossing the road to see the original, even for free, but
here Curt’s sense of beauty, drama and balance – which have served him
well in a number of works and projects involving remix/appropriation, notably
his fantastic playdamage project –
redeem banality to something genuinely affecting.
More next week.

Chris Laxton/Yell at Birds – Curse Her Black Heart

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the mouse escapes
Curse Her Black Heart (2010, 137MB, 4:24 min)

Chris Laxton’s creative deployment of a turntable & nice fractal images…

Marc Garrett & Ruth Catlow – At Winter Equinox We Burn the Sun

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the mouse escapes
At Winter Equinox We Burn the Sun (2010, 37MB, 3:48 min)

And by way of wishing a Happy New Year to all, here’s a tremendous piece from my friends
Marc Garrett & Ruth Catlow, the movers behind the indispensable Furtherfield.org & the Netbehaviour list.
Here they ritually burn a copy of the evil Murdoch’s UK organ The Sun & accompany this
with music both apposite and well executed.
I think this is shot very well. I don’t mean in a boring technical sense – who gives a? –
but that it is utterly alive, especially those beautiful final, almost vertical, shots.
There’s a delicious play here too on folkishness which treads a fine line in avoiding
being itself folksy.
Further – here’s a practical demonstration of how political art doesn’t have to
be dour or ploddingly earnest and indeed can summon a visceral beauty.
There’s a dialogue (or, perhaps better, an argument) between this celebration of the beauty
of the world, betokened in this scene and what passes therein, and the real ugliness and
anti-humanity of the paper and its contents.
Great Great Great.

Run DMC – Christmas in Hollis

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Christmas in Hollis
Christmas in Hollis (1987, 32MB, 4:02 min)

This vid is probably old news to a lot of you but it
passed me by completely in 87 (and the many times
too, apparently, it has since re-emerged on soundtracks &c.
I should get out more).
I love it. It makes me grin so wide I’m afraid my
head will fall off. Plus it’s seasonal.
This is our last post for 2010 so we’ll wish all of
you the happiest of holiday seasons & we’ll resume
posting on Jan 3rd.

Monochrom – The Earth Has Been Destroyed

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The Earth Has Been Destroyed
The Earth Has Been Destroyed (2010, 194MB, 5:06 min)

Something new from the splendidly sideways Austrian art/mischief wranglers
Monochrom is always welcome and this piece is no exception.
Absurd ( Popcorn for Chrissakes!!), just about hanging together,
but hanging together artfully nonetheless; even a little bit chilling too.

Other Monochrom stuff on DVblog.

The Smith Family

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#1
#1 (2007, 1MB, 56 secs)

#2
#1 (2007, 1MB, 57 secs)

In 2007 I ran a little competition on my site centred aound
a musical setting I had made of a tiny poem by my friends and
collaborators Robert Roth & Carletta Joy Walker for
their magazine “And Then”.

I invited remixes, either musical or visual, of the song and
these two pieces, both utterly barking & delicately poetic at one
and the same time, came winging their way from the Smith Family
in Germany.
Wonderful!

Black or White, the Gravy Version

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black or white
Black or White, the Gravy Version (2010, 58 MB, 2:38 min.)

An outing, or perhaps more a forced march, for Michael Jackson’s
Black or White refracted through the prism of English
whimsy that is Edward Picot (well, on occasion; fans will know
his range is much, much broader) with co-conspirator Hoola Hoop Kid.
Never understood the Jackson appeal myself but this I like a great deal.
Wish, though, they’d called it ‘Black or White, the Gravy Mix‘.

More from Shannon Noble

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shanno
Shanno (2010, 11MB, 36 secs)

Nice contrast to Newt – more worked.
The man has range.

Morrisa Maltz – First Class

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whats ahead
First Class (2010, 127 MB, 3:40 min)

And First Class it is too -we’ve enthused about Morrisa Maltz here quite
recently & her first music vid (for Everybody Else) doesn’t disappoint.
It’s stylish without being glib, chock full of ideas but nicely unified by
a visual language those who’ve seen her work before will instantly recognise.
My only cavil (which I already expressed to her) is the degree of
objectification at work here in the portrayal of women,
(you know…the boys play & the girls kind of dance around
or pose, looking nice &c &c) which I find a tad depressing coming from
a clearly enormously talented & capable woman artist.
More than well made though & I look forward to whatever comes next.

Eddie Whelan – whats ahead

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whats ahead
whats ahead (2010, 53 MB, 2:35 min)

Whilst many predicted that datamoshing would quickly become a
tired & routine Cliché who’d ever have thought someone might rather
classicize it: make of it something measured, understated, controlled
& with it yield such delicate & rarefied loveliness as does Eddie Whelan
in this music vid for The Meanest Boys.
Simply great.

bad l.a. pool water – Antonio Mendoza

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badlapoolwater
bad l.a. pool water (2010, 31MB, 4:14 min.)

Antonio Mendoza remix triptych.tv. Music by ‘no johnny’.

Scanner et al. – Night Jam

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NightJam
NightJam (2006, 26MB, 11:28 min.)

An Artangel commissioned project from 2006 involving
sound artist Scanner working with clients of London’s
New Horizons Youth Centre, devoted to work with homeless youth.
The musical collaborators are MC Utta, MC Marcel,
MC Quick Latino, MC Magic and MC Sweetie.

Undoubtedly evocative, if a tad derivative, especially
considering the resources at play here.
The multilingual MCing is great though!

Moljevic aka Albert Nanning

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What is this
What Is This? (2006, 20.8MB, 2:31 min.)

Deft & attractive travelogue/visual poem/puzzle taking
us on a dream tour of Moljevic’s native Amsterdam.
More on his YouTube channel, and website

Omar Souleyman – Music Video for ‘Leh Jani’

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Applause
Leh-Jani (2007?, 10 MB, 3:22 min)

Omar Souleyman being the performer not the video maker,
whose name unfortunately I can’t find.
[STOP PRESS: Mark Gergis has got in touch to say he made the video.
Googling him has unravelled an interesting trail of audio & video work
which we hope to follow further in future]
Anyway the wonderful video ( & it is wonderful -even the cheesy ‘boxy’
effect which is used once & in exactly the right place –
& edit & pacing are pretty much perfect)
serves performer -what a voice!- & song admirably…couple of minutes
of sheer cool & utter exhilaration somehow
paradoxically delivered in the same package.
This is fast shaping up to be my favourite ever music vid,
and the album from Sublime Frequencies (they say they’re sold
out, but a little searching secured me a copy elsewhere) is as good
as this promises.
More to be found on Y**T***.

Howe Gelb – Spiral

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Spiral
Spiral (2008, 16 MB, 3:41 min)

On the whole I’m totally bored with popular music of all kinds,
especially sick at hearing how “innovative” this or that is just to find
it as dull & derivative & lazy as the rest.

SO..the wonderful Howe Gelb continues to be a signal exception
to the gloom. Passionate, odd and totally engaging music seems to flow
from him continually & ( I could be wrong) he doesn’t seem to have
fallen into the trap of giving people what he thinks they want rather
than what his artistic conscience tells him to make – or to put it better
art trumps business in his work in a shockingly unusual way.
Long may it continue.

Brantley Jones Again

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Mountains
Mountains – “Interlude” (2010, 105 MB, 2:11 min)

Wistful, quirky & -well, just quite lovely – bit of filmmaking from
Brantley Jones who squeezes real magic – what feels in part like a summoning up of a child’s
eye view of the world (in the best possible sense) – from minimal resources.
Don’t be fooled though – there’s both eye and technique at work here.
We’ve shown his work here before & on the evidence of this will certainly
do so again.

The music is Interlude by Mountains from the album Sewn

Brian Gibson – On A Roof

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on a roof
On A Roof (2010, 20 MB, 2:52 min)

Sheer ravishing loveliness from DVblog’s own Brian Gibson
( I posted his last piece too, I know, but he’s not making that much these days
& what he does make is just so great, I can’t resist.)
More please!

Deerhoof Music Video – Martha Colburn

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deerhoof1
Wrong Time Capsule(2005, 6.6 MB, 3 Min.)

This is a music video from 2005 for the band Deerhoof, created by
the artist Martha Colburn. A self-taught filmmaker, she
animates her collages into very fancy, lo-fi, kaleidoscopic,
trash-rock adventures. If you don’t get it from this description,
she has many cilps from her films posted on her website.
Go out of your way to see her work.

By Mica.

Move – Move if you wanna – Keith Schofield

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mims
“Move” (2009, 25MB, 3:06 min.)

Mims – “Move”, a hip-hop music video that used high-speed Phantom
cameras to shoot the “ultra slow-motion” dance/movement sequences.
By Keith Schofield.

Keith Schofield – “Heaven Can Wait”

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charlotte-gainsbourg+beck
“Heaven Can Wait” (2009, 21MB, 2:40 min.)

Charlotte Gainsbourg & Beck music video by Keith Schofield.
Skateboard on Cheeseburgers and Floating Cloth shots inspired
by the work of William Hundley.

with wavering light – Brian Gibson

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with wavering light
with wavering light (2010, 31MB, 3:03 min.)

Delicate, beautiful & assured work from occasional contributor here,
Brian Gibson.
I do particularly love the recorded-as-live harmonium, which, unlike
so much of the current use of music in movie-making serves to somehow
open out, rather than close off, the piece’s field of meanings.

Sam Renseiw – Fragmented Occurences

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Fragmented Occurences
Fragmented Occurences (2010, 67MB, 4:33 min.)

It’s a little while since we featured anything from the splendid Sam
Renseiw, so here’s a recent piece.
In contrast to many of his films, which have an incredibly strong
sense of a particular place, this was apparently composed
from odds and ends of footage from various locations during the last
few months.
I think it works beautifully; it’s instructive to see Sam intervening,
perhaps a little more than usual, at the editing level.
(His camera work is always very distinctive – there’s often a sense
-true or not- that many pieces are largely composed in the shooting.)

Whatever the case, this is, as always, a wonderful and utterly distinctive voice.

PS This is our 1000th post of the new series. Many thanks to all who have sent words of encouragement & appreciation. It makes the time spent working on DVblog feel doubly worthwhile.

Joy Comes in the Morning

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joycomesInthemorning1
Joy Comes in the Morning (2005, 24MB, 4:14 min.)

“In 2005 I concepted, pitched and produced a music video for the band Xploding Plastix.
I directed and animated the video using L.A. artist Joe Ledbetter’s hand-painted elements
to create a puppet-show aesthetic.”
from Scott Friedman.

Annie Abrahams & Curt Cloninger -<em> Double Blind</em>

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double blind
Double Blind (clip) ( 2010, 70MB, 5:38 min)

“Annie Abrahams (from the Living Room in Montpellier, France)
and Curt Cloninger (from Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center
in Asheville, North Carolina, US) repeatedly sang “love, love, love”
(a short excerpt from a pop song) as a kind of duet, in real
time/space and online.

In order to isolate them from their surroundings and make them
more attentive to the other, they were both blindfolded.
While singing they evolved and mutated the original song excerpt,
collaborating and communicating in a space/time of alterity.
The artists have never met each other in the flesh.

There was no set duration.
They sang until the last one of them decided to stop.
In both places a space was reserved for the live performance
and another for the video and audio projection.
A camera was fixed on each of their faces singing to each other.
This live video of both faces was projected both in the
Living Room space and in the Black Mountain College
Museum and Arts Center space.
The performance was also visible on the web at http://selfworld.net.”


Interesting and affecting convergence of the performative work
Curt Cloninger has been doing of late with the
strange, wonderful & categorisation denying oeuvre of Annie Abrahams.

We feature here only a tiny extract from the 4 hour plus performance
of Double Blind – the complete documentation will be on show
as part of Annie Abraham’s first UK solo show at HTTP gallery
in North London, in addition to new works and performances.
The opening is on Friday night & all are welcome – if you’re in
or near London it’ll be well worth getting along to.

Complete Double Blind documentation & links

Paul Rodriguez – Flowers

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Flowers
Flowers (2010, 52 MB, 3:16 min)

I really hated this piece, a music video for Former Ghosts,
the first time I saw it, although I’d previously enjoyed work
by Paul Rodriguez and posted some here.
My first impressions were confirmed by a trawl through
the publicity material surrounding it:
“A naked dude gets peed on in this disturbing clip from the electro-goth
project led by Freddy Ruppert. Director: Paul Rodriguez….”
which seemed a tad..er..calculating
I was so bemused by how much I took against the piece
that I watched it several times over to try and analyse my reactions
and the more I looked at it the more the sheer deftness,
care and feel for the medium with which it is made began to
prevail over my dislike of the content.
Rodriguez confirms himself a filmmaker of real talent, with a great eye
and superb attention to detail.
I’m not sure someone possessed of his gifts needs to work so hard to
make us look his way but I remain very interested to see where he goes next.

Michael Bell-Smith – “Walk Again” music video

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walk_again
Walk Again (2006, 36 MB, 2:29 min.)

By Michael Bell-Smith.

Ask Vatne Brean –Two Short Movies

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Freely Improvised Music With Digital Effects On Analog Wind Instrument In Depth Against Painted Directed Italian Reality Game Show On a Flat Screen
Freely Improvised Music With Digital Effects On Analog Wind Instrument In Depth Against Painted Directed Italian Reality Game Show On a Flat Screen (2009, 20 MB, 3:27 min)

Small creatures everywhere looking for adventures
Small creatures everywhere looking for adventures (2009, 14 MB, 2:24 min)

But not short titles eh Ask?
Work of skill, verve, charm & oddness from Ask Vatne Brean
about whom I know nothing , except I think he is Norwegian.

Update: He is Norwegian & is an 18 year old
music student.
Impressive & somewhat scary – I look forward to seeing how his
work develops.

core duo riddim – abe linkoln

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core duo riddim
core duo riddim (2006, 23.8MB, 3 min)

Music video from awhile back by abe linkoln for ‘core duo’
an experimental-y, electronica-y, dance-y kind of outfit.
Good stuff !

Jason Miller – Fall Was Kind

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fall was kind
Fall Was Kind (2009, 40 MB, 2:57 min)

Well, we’re a season out, but it somehow feels altogether
appropriate to feature this bit of tranquil & melancholy loveliness
on a holiday day like today.

(Made, BTW, by yet another School of Athens alumnus, Jason Miller)

We’re going to take a short break ourselves now, but we’ll be back,
batteries fully re-charged, on January 4th.

We wish everone a happy & peaceful holiday season.

SNABBEAS – GOTO80 and Ilan Katin

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snabbeas
SNABBEAS (2009, 107 MB, 4:36 min.)

Music video for the GOTO80 track ‘Snabbeas’ by Ilan Katin
of Team Modul8.

Annette Hollywood – Stuttgarter Filmwinter Trailer

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filmwinter trailer
Stuttgarter Filmwinter – Trailer (2009, 6 MB, 58 secs)

Adding with distinction one feels to the, perhaps hitherto
somewhat sparsely populated, genre of German-Art-Country & Western
is this quite splendid trailer from Annette Hollywood for the annual
Stuttgarter Filmwinter festival.
The subtitles are in Schwabian, the local dialect, and we
reproduce both Engilsh and Schwabian lyrics below.
Photography is by Anna Go, all else by Ms Hollywood.
Fab.

for a shooting cowboygirl like me
in the cold desert of artscenery
filmwinter is like a warm campfire
and makes filmworld much higher

they bombard you with prices of honour
like this arty wolperdonger

Aaron Cavanagh – 3D

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3D
3D (2009, 52 MB, 1:42 min)

I taught Aaron Cavanagh last year at Teesside University.
I don’t know whether he’s still making video but anyone
who can make stuff as viscerally exhilarating
as this certainly should be.
Couple more from Teesside next week.

Plastilina Mosh: OXIDADOS

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oxidados
OXIDADOS (2003, 13MB, 3:09 min)

Plastilina Mosh, one of the original, eclectic rock en Espanol groups.
Here is a new, old school video like the 80.

By Mica Scalin.

Two from The Silver Jews

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to the max
to the max (2005, 37.9MB, 3:30 min)

Sleeping is the Only Love
sleeping is the only love (2006, 7.2MB, 2:54 min)

From The Silver Jews.

Donna Kuhn Blown Away Rose

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Blown Away Rose
Blown Away Rose (2009, 48 MB, 2:06 min)

We’ve observed before how wonderfully productive
Donna Kuhn makes her relatively restricted lexicon
of images ( OK Greek Professors! -I know there’s a problem with that expression
but it does, and I don’t know what the image equivalent of lexicon is.)
Side by side with this she cautiously introduces new elements, which I look
forward to seeing her work over in her inimitable way during the course of her next few movies.
Latest is the landscape of New Mexico.
That makes me want to visit; the video as a whole makes me want to squeal with
delight.

Subterranean Homesick Blues – Bob Dylan

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subterranean
subterranean homesick blues (1967-2005, 7.5MB, 1:37 min.)

Clip from –

Data Moshing with Eddie Whelan

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caralion
caralion (2009, 10 MB, 1:03 min)

metalbear
METALBEAR (2009, 11 MB, 44 secs)

atlasbear
atlas bear (2009, 9 MB, 54 secs)

There’s a wonderful strangeness and abandon to Eddie Whelan’s work.
Here he indulges in some rather winning datamoshing.
It all looks garishly gorgeous but the icing for me is his choice
and use of music/sound, which resonates very effectively with the visuals.
The lion piece, in particular, seems to me to be deeply melancholy, lovely
and pretty funny, all at the same time.

‘New Me’ by Aleksandra Domanovic

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newme
New Me (2006, 21 MB, 4:04 min.)

Music video for Jamie Lidell by Aleksandra Domanovic.

Florian Cramer – Floppy Films

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nkdlunch (2009, 1:24MB 2:44 min)


coraria (2009, 1:35MB 2:09 min)

Ultimately, personally, I admire these more than I like them.
It’s clever/witty stuff, no doubt, squeezing sections of films,
or mash-ups thereof, down to the size of the old floppies
but you just feel it pretty much stops there. Is there much
to actually watch/engage with & if there is, how much of this
arises from the original material before the conceptual
shenanigans commence?
This is especially marked in ‘Coraria’, which feels entirely
parasitic upon John Cage and upon the tremendous performance &
photogenic qualities of Cora Schmeiser.
Hmm. You decide.

[There’s a more detailed ( & sympathetic!) account here
& you can buy the pieces on floppy, should you feel so moved, here]

Laurie Johnson – Bleak House

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Bleak House (2009, 23MB, 1:34)

Assured & atmospheric piece from Laurie Johnson.
Interesting to compare it with previous work.
There’s a distinct sense of consolidation, of raising the game,
going on here.
One to watch.

Incident at Festival Pocket Films

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Incident (2009, 44MB, 1:27 min)

DVblog’s Michael Szpakowski won the Jury Prize at the
Pocket Films Festival at the Forum des Images in Paris
last weekend for this short dream-documentary.