Various artists

Category: IDM
Album: Warp Vision (The Videos 1989-2004)

Warp Records has provided for those who enjoy IDM a massive collection of all the luminaries of the scene that have appeared on Warp over the years. In this collection you have a DVD of the 32 videos that Warp has produced over the past 15 years as well as a bonus CD featuring 11 megamix tracks, cobbled together by DJ’s Buddy Peace and ZILLA.

I’ll focus on the videos, as I’m no great fan of IDM music itself and would have no way of really comprehending its merits.

The videos are an odd, though often interesting, array of visuals. There are the many standards that most will be familiar with, such as Aphex Twin’s “Come To Daddy” and “Windowlicker” videos. The collection does feature all of Aphex Twin’s hits, as well as videos by the likes of Squarepusher, Autechre, LFO, Luke Vibert, and many others.

There are many that are nothing more than trippy eye candy or boring filler, but many are revolutionary in their sense of weirdness. Most of the better ones are those directed by “Come To Daddy” director Chris Cunningham, who adds an air of professionalism to the proceedings. His dark visuals, combined with David Slade’s video for LFO’s “Tied Up” add a sense of dirty darkness to the typically very minimal fare.

The other less interesting visual presentations are broken up by gritty Burroughs-esque surrealism from Antipop Consortium, excellent computer-generated visuals to compliment Autechre’s noise, Japanese schoolgirls freaking the fuck out in LFO’s “Freak”, and the absolutely bizarre corporate life-meets-fetishism-meets-cannibalism of Plaid’s “Itsu”.

If one is in the market for some of what Strange Days would have referred to as “eyefuck”, then one could do worse than check out this interesting collection. The videos do justice to the atmosphere of the music and, despite a variety of missteps and boring moments, the majority of the material is well worth a look if not exceptional.

 

from ReGen Magazine (~1/2005)