quoted 5 lines wells said:> wells said:
> i don't give two shits about monkeys clicking stones. i'm all for
> experimentation and if that's what coldcut wants to do, let them. i find
> the entire natural rythym idea very, very lame. the video is gad-awful
> stupid, and the music is basic and pointless. dull, dull. BUT, you say,
THE
quoted 2 lines MONKEYS CLICKING ON STONES IN PERFECTLY IN SYNCH WITH> MONKEYS CLICKING ON STONES IN PERFECTLY IN SYNCH WITH
> THE BASS DRUM.
Perhaps you don't understand what they did. The normal process of making a
music video is to make a song, then cut a video *afterwards* to
synchronize with the song. What coldcut did was make them both at the same
time. They (allegedly) used *ONLY* VIDEO equipment to make the track, and
released it *exclusively* as a video, not as a sound recording.
The sounds are in synch because the video of the monkey clicking the stone
IS ACTUALLY THE SOURCE OF THE SOUND. It's not a bassdrum "synched" to the
monkey. That sound is the exact same sound that was on the videotape of
the monkey.
All the video clips appear to be from nature TV shows. I've always been
fascinated by how nature TV show editors *add* sound effects to their
clips. For example when a little praying mantis is eating a leaf, you hear
little "clickitycrunchity" sounds, as if they actually had a tiny
microphone on the bug! It's often faked in the studio afterwards, probably
even using some of the same sound effects sample CD's many IDM artists
use. Many of Natural Rhythm's video samples appear to have this kind of
faked audio. I think by cutting up the video and turning it into a hybrid
video and musical peice, they (for me) make a funny, thoughtful work of
art which questions man's perceptions and representations of Nature
through modern technology. I especially like the way they show a
"indiginous" person among the animals, using the same 19th century
colonial taxonomy that many nature shows and natural history museums use.
I personally found it extremely interesting to watch. Yeah, if I heard the
song on the radio or something it would seem pretty simple and plain. But
it's NOT A SONG! It's a VIDEO. It's ART! All that artspeak stuff above. I
actually thought all that stuff whan I saw it. All you thought was "uh...
duhh... lame....".
If you know anything about how video editing is done and how music videos
are usually made, you'd be impressed. Most of the time, the band and the
video director are total strangers and don't communicate much. Coldcut is
trying something *new*, they are experimenting. Natural Rhythm is a first
step toward a newer, more tehnologically-saavy way of developing the
now-stagnant art form of the music video.
And on a personal note: I find your attitude toward experimentation and
towards other people's opinions pretty fucking closed minded. You've only
heard one Coldcut track and you write them off as "lame". If you don't
like to experience the *experiments* of artists, then I don't know what
the fuck you're doing on the IDM list.
BTW, Coldcut is also noted for their legendary remix of Eric B and Rakim's
Paid In Full. If you're very very young or you live in a hole and have
never heard it, then I *strongly* recommend you go hear it. If you have
heard it and don't like it, then I suppose you *are* hopeless.
-Chris Fahey