Matthew Dear (teaser for the album “Black City,” below) and Flying Lotus (video for “MmmHmm” off Cosmogramma, above) each get rich, evocative video worlds to accompany their music. As a lot of music videos turn to gimmickry to try to go viral – tending to be either blindingly awesome, as with OK Go, or things trying to be as awesome as OK Go — these represent a vastly different approach. The visual universes they spin seem to flow straight out of the aesthetic textures of the music.
For Flying Lotus, Warp Films (the visual offshoot of legendary Warp Records) turns to Special Problems, a multidisciplinary studio comprised of Campbell Hooper and Joel Kefali. Their work is a perfect match, bringing together surprising combinations of lush, cinematic essays with flattened, abstract animations — check out their full portfolio. The actual seams here between fantastic, glittering imaginary real-plus-effects shots to sudden retro game art is sometimes a bit jarring, but then, it’s not unprecedented given FlyLo’s own collage style. And, uh, is it just me or is anyone else jonesin’ to play a FlyLo platformer. (Super Steve World?) Speaking of FlyLo himself, I need to find out what he’s been up to with his SLR camera; when I sat down with him a while ago, we wound up talking more about visuals than music, and about how visual and musical inspiration can touch one another.
The visual score to Matthew Dear’s music, below, is just a promotional teaser, but what a teaser. Whereas Warp chose a recent pairing, Dear has had an art director since his first record, Leave Luck to Heaven. The visuals and sound dance together as transparently as a great lyricist-composer collaboration. The label Dear himself co-founded, Ghostly, tells me more videos are coming. And yes, in case you’re wondering, that’s led
I hope to have more on each of these creations, so stay tuned here. Now that we have an RSS feed working, that should be a bit easier. (I can just say that, like the flood and the ark, those of you still reading have survived while any comment trolls have gone elsewhere?)
Matthew Dear – Black City Teaser from Ghostly International on Vimeo.