Busy times for me, kittens. Haven't had a free moment to attend to my little corner of the blogosphere. Thankfully, nothing worth writing about happened over the last few days. However, with new albums in my sweaty hands, watch out for a flurry of activity in the approach to Christmas.
This week, Underworld premiered two new vids from their current longplayer, "Barking". First up is third single, "Bird 1", an eerie, throbbing track which is much darker than the previous singles from the elpee.
Well, that was slightly more exciting than watching paint dry. I guess that video budget isn't as robust as they would have liked it to be.
Next up is a bonus clip they produced for "Diamond Jigsaw". Underworld, like many artists, have thrown convention out the window by lensing vids for various album tracks whether or not they are intended to be for promotion around a single. It's the wild west, children.
Next up is a bonus clip they produced for "Diamond Jigsaw". Underworld, like many artists, have thrown convention out the window by lensing vids for various album tracks whether or not they are intended to be for promotion around a single. It's the wild west, children.
A slightly trippy and otherworldly video for Underworld. I do hope they washed those jeans, particularly the one around the gentleman's face.
"Diamond Jigsaw" is a much more jaunty and euphoric number compared to many of their previous efforts. It's bordering ever so closely to a pop song! In fact, it's not a million miles away from Underworld Mk 1 when they were a rock/dance hybrid after the demise of Freur.
Personally, I'm excited by the notions that video budgets have plummeted and that, commensurately, videos are being made for album tracks just because they have a camera in hand already and the main video's done. It may be "wild west" now but that's how it was in the early days of the video era. Clips shot on video or 8/16MM [if there was a budget more than $2000] and thrown out there to see what happens are okay with me. I remember the days when you could get a video made for an album track or even a B-side and when the stakes were low; the thought was "why not?"
ReplyDeleteIt was a dark day when video budgets rose above a few thousand. Darker still were the likes of Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" with the first all-union shoot for a video. My mind exploded when I realized that some videos were so expensive that there was almost no way a single's sales could ever hope to recoup the costs. The "blockbuster" mentality is to the detriment of music.
So Underworld MkII is flirting with pop? Color me interested! As a dyed-in-the-wool fan of Freur, I still pine for those days of electro twitch quirk rock, but even the MkI formation of Underworld was okay with me.
@postpunkmonk - Indeed! I'm thrilled that groups like Underworld have been flirting with multiple videos on low(ish) budgets. It makes things far more interesting. And there are no network "standards" to abide by. Welcome back to the wild west!
ReplyDeleteOf course it doesn't hurt that Underworld are part of the Tomato design collective and have talent to spare.
ReplyDelete@postpunkmonk - Absolutely! With all that talent to tap into, I'm sure that's why Underworld are able to come up with visuals to match their recorded output on a regular basis.
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