Computer-animation videos are traditionally plagued by brain-dead music. Not so with (Motion), the latest installment in Warp Records's Artificial Intelligence entertainment series.
Preceded by a string of groundbreaking CDs by artists such as Polygon Window (aka Aphex Twin) and Balil (aka Black Dog), (Motion) is the flagship Artificial Intelligence video.
New Agers are bound to feel threatened, and computer animation purists may nit-pick, but the rest of us will find a video that unites digital sights and sounds in a way that is absolutely sublime. Spliff-smoking cyborgs, mutating microscopic blobs, and search-and-destroy remote 'droids set the tone for this trip. Genre clichés are kept to a minimum - in fact, the only dolphins you'll see here are being attacked and consumed by some weird-ass environmental foe. The rest of the time, the viewer is flowing through a seamless depiction of what director/animator Phil Wolstenholme refers to as "an attempt to define the area of consciousness that is normally inaccessible to the waking brain ... [what] is often called 'The Other." This is roughly equivalent to some serious astral projecting with a HandyCam on board.
Equal emphasis is placed on the (Motion) soundtrack. Material from Artificial Intelligence veterans Polygon Window, Speedy J, and Autechre are combined with tracks from newcomers Mark Franklin and Beaumont Hannant. Like all the best progressive electronic and ambient songs, these invoke visions of alien vistas and impossible technology. Conveniently, the makers of (Motion) have come up with some visuals that can rival the imaginings of even the most whacked-out of us. All you have to do is plug it in and open your head.
(Motion): $US15.98. In North America: Wax Trax!: +1 (312) 252 1000, fax +1 (312) 252 1007.
In the UK/Europe: Warp Records (England): +44 (74) 275 7586, fax +44 (74) 275 7589.
STREET CRED
Sega's Tokyo JoypolisCD Rights
Trip on Tape
