I had the privilege of sneak previewing the video for Autechre's _Second Bad
Vilbel_ (from _Anvil Vapre_). It's one of the best video's I've seen for a
long time, so I hope it gets lot's of air time. MTV should be showing it,
and hopefully Passengers.
Directed by Chris Cunningham it's very well suited to the track. Throughout
it uses distorted, blurred images, static, banding etc, with the occasional
lucid moment. It looks as if the video tape has had sandpaper scratched
along it or it's being transmitted from somewhere far away... The images
being distorted conjure up some kind of future dystopia, dark tunnels, a
faceless androgynous 'alien' and a very cool evil(?) robot thing. You see
this robot thing going through test routines or something, with cutting to
and from this alien character in these corridors/tunnels... Think of the
gorgeous dark presence Alien^3 had. [A *much* underated film. Yanks never
*got* it! :) ]
They built this robot especially for the video, looks a bit like the ED209
thing from Robocop, only cooler, sleeker, more organic and a lot less silly.
I want it!
The robot is really just a still model, the movement is all computer
animated. And it's VERY realistic, with the distortion effects over the top,
I only realised it *was* computer animation after several minutes of
thinking 'Fuck that specially built animatronic robot thing must have cost a
fortune'.
The video ends ominously when... well watch/figure it for yourself. A must see.
g3
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