|
Welcome to VISUAL STIMULI, a critical perspective on the eyeball-friendly side of music: the humble and oft-overlooked Music Video with MICHAEL PINCOTT. Now showing on your favoured televisual device or YouTube platform…
 WHERE IN THIS WORLD – The Notwist
Director: Marcus Wambsganss
The song: Gorgeous folktronica and minimalist beats frame Markus Acher’s disarmingly restrained vocals, and the short electronic squalls that appear in the second half of the song add a lot for something so small.
The video: It tells the story of a couple living out in a big old house in the wilderness. The man welds outside while the woman pulls some wheels out of the leaves. They build a plane and try to take off but it crashes on the runway. Dejected they go to bed, but the fans in the room inspire the man to try again. The next morning he sets to fashioning a makeshift helicopter, and this time they are able to take off into the night.
Stimulatory value? The story of the video is executed very well, the isolation of the couple and their situation is made clear by the decrepit house they live in. Acher repeatedly sings about escape in the song and this certainly appears to be closely tied to the couple’s goals in the video. It’s a strong effort, and the desolate setting really sells the story.
****
 LIKE IT OR NOT – Architecture In Helsinki
Director: Josh Logue
The song: Who would have thought ‘wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa’ would make such great lyrics? It’s an effortlessly catchy slice of pop from Places Like This with a fun calypso vibe.
The video: Cross-stitching, just like your nanna does! It’s a journey into the AIH cross-stitch island wonderland, featuring lions with colourful manes, sad little coconut head things, cross-stitch table tennis players, and even the band themselves cutely rendered as little cross-stitch people. The Rubix cube hot-air balloons are especially cool. Those coconuts, are they in love? It’s sort of hard to tell.
Stimulatory value: You just have to love the way the video looks. It’s typically cute and quirky, matching AIH’s music perfectly, as if they physically wringed out one of their records and the soapy residues came together to form this video. The video certainly lives up to the music that it partners with: fun, sweet and endearing.
***½
 FEELING IS GONE – The Panics
Director: Bart Borghesi
The song: The Panics showing off their tremendous songwriting talents with another solid ballad from Cruel Guards.
The video: Not a lot of story to tell in this department – the band members are picked up by a sort of train/tram hybrid travelling through some typically Australian countryside, the band plays on the train. The train breaks down and Jae Laffer has a stare-down with a cow. Jae wins. This is the most entertaining part of the video, but I’m pretty sure it’s not actually meant to be a stare-down.
Stimulatory value: Perfectly functional, but the lack of creativity is uninspiring, especially when it’s such a good song. That said, the tone of the video does a good job of matching that of the song, and scenic Australian locales are probably the best thing to be viewed while listening to a band like the Panics. Unfortunately though it also felt like you could simply replace the Panics guys with Powderfinger guys, change the song and the video would still work just as well. That’s not a good thing.
**
|
| Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Poster's IP addresses are logged. |
|
Be first to comment on this article
