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DVD Review: ZEN tv DVD (Ninja Tune)
Reviewer: Marcos Moret
I was about to start this piece bemoaning the dearth of creativity in the music video industry right now. But I had
to check myself once I remembered the work of celebrated directors like Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham, Michel Gondry,
and Hype Williams. You’ve got to admit, though: a cursory viewing of MTV reveals a glut of glossy location / scantily
clad ladies / faux-concert footage style pieces. And so there’s evidently plenty of room at the more experimental end
of the music video spectrum, particularly for those able to take risks without incurring the wrath of results-obsessed
major label execs.
Ninja Tune, those purveyors of weird and wonderful breakbeat-driven music, don’t put out music for the pop charts and
so they’ve eruditely reasoned that there isn’t much point spending massive dollar on a bling video. They do, however,
have a knack of working with lots of the top up-and-coming players in video and direction. So Ninja support those
rising stars of the industry whilst getting some value-for-money creative work for their troubles. Lovely.
In the ZEN tv DVD we’re afforded a retrospective panorama of almost a decade of their distinctive slant on audiovisual
cross-overs. The disc has twice the capacity of a normal DVD, and for good reason - there are 35 videos contained
within, plus some serious extras in the form of a 15-minute audiovisual mix and 30-minute audio mix from Hextatic.
As an added bonus that will set usability freaks cheering uproariously, there's an oh-so-handy navigation menu that allows you to choose whether you want to play the videos
chronologically, at random, or by artist. Coming in at just under three hours of material, this has got to be a
ZEN-lover’s dream package.
The videos vary massively from one to the next. But if there’s a common ground other than the music (much of which has
a trademark Ninja Tune ‘sound’), it’s the fact that the imagery is invariably very closely locked in to the music.
So much so that at times you begin to wonder whether the video gave birth to the audio rather than the other way
around. When you consider the fact that Ninja Tune founders Coldcut and other acts like Hexstatic are almost as well
known for their audiovisual and VJing work as they are for their music, this makes a lot of sense. Such synchronicity
is evident in Kid Koala’s lovely lolloping animation
Basin Street Blues (directors Monkmus, 2003). Everything ties in with the smallest of sounds e.g. when a
dude appears from a manhole, the impact of the cover hitting the street perfectly corresponds with a cymbal hit.
And so to the videos themselves. On the somewhat more conventional side of things (but none the worse-off for it), we
have the Cinematic Orchestra’s
All That You Give (directors Eva Katzenmaier and Russ Murphy, 2002). Lush in reds, blacks, and yellows, it
centres on footage of the band and guest vocalist Fontella Bass performing in a dusky jazz club. At the wackier
extremes is Jaga Jazzist’s Animal Chin (directors AKFF!, 2002), where the band members' smiling
faces are transposed onto jerkily stop-frame animated bison’s bodies. They gallop the plains amongst zebras and
giraffes, against a suitably hectic musical backdrop; this is some cheaply-made, bugged-out, and truly hilarious
ish. In the 'Dated looking but still kinda cool' category we have Coldcut’s Timber (director Stuart Warren Hill,
1997) where simple images of trees getting cut down and associated noises form like Voltron into a breakbeat beast
with a serrated political edge. And I really appreciated the inclusion of DJ Food’s 2003 edit of Sesame Street's
Pinball Number Count (remember the funky ‘one-two-three four, five...’ refrain?), which brought the
memories flooding back.
Highly entertaining stuff and a serious recommendation, especially if you like Ninja Tune, if you have an interest in
music/film/animation hybridisation, or if you're just a straight-up stylishly creative motherfucker.
RELATED LINKS:
Ninja Tune
Ninja Tune streaming videos
Review of ZEN CD - retrospective album launched concurrently
with ZEN tv DVD
Review of ZEN RMX - remix album also launched concurrently
Buy ZEN tv DVD at Amazon
UK
|
US (CD)
Buy ZEN RMX at Amazon
UK (CD)
|
US (CD)
Buy ZEN CD at Amazon
UK (CD)
|
US (CD)
RELEASE DATE: Monday 9 February 2004 (UK/US)
PUBLISHED: Tuesday 20 January 2004
To send us music for potential inclusion, email us at
promos@knowtheledge.net
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::: RELATED LINKS
Ninja Tune
Review of ZEN CD
Review of ZEN RMX
Buy ZEN tv DVD at Amazon
UK
|
US (CD)
More Reviews
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