Event: Bug 54

Time for another Bug, with Buxton presenting another selection of great videos...and here's what we had this time.

First up was "Save Me" by Cameroonian singer Irma. This was missed by Bug, having been released in 2014. I like projection mapping and this one is pretty clever with how they do it. 

"Halfway to Nowhere" by Chelou features Andy Baker animating art from Polly Nor. I wasn't blown away by this one.

Perhaps a bit too commercial for Bug was Katy Perry's no video "Chained to the Rhythm". An interesting futuro-retro looking video set in Six Flags Magic Mountain. I got to geek out a bit at this one recognising the location and most of the "normal" rides. A bit weird that they include Hulk from Islands of Adventure in the park...I told you, geek! This vid also got the Facebooker treatment.

A rather funny video from speed rapper Watsky for his track "Stick to your Guns" then followed. A rather bizarre interpretation of the track by director Carlos Lopez Estrada.

The next video saw a collaboration between "Far too serious" Max Cooper and director Maxime Causeret. Starting with raindrops "quantized to a grid" we see visual representations of cellular growth that had to computer generated. This one got better with subsequent viewings.

A weird video for The Lemon Twigs directed by Nick Roney saw him try to film the video around his grandparents house. I didn't really get this one. It tried to be too clever.

The guest director in this episode was Oscar Hudson who has been shown at Bug before. We got some videos of his shown too, which feature repetition very much like Michel Gondrey - not a bad director to be compared to.

The first video was "Choreograph" by Gilligan Moss. This is a track I discovered through Spotify's dynamic playlists and I really like it but I'd never seen the video, which having seen tonight I think is great too. It looks like looped composites but it's not. Just look-a-likes and a lot of running off-camera to get back into position. 

Next up was Bug staple Darwin Deez and "The Mess She Made". This is a straightforward idea brilliantly executed. Oscar told us that the secret to keeping all of it in focus was to use a wide angle lense and a lot of light - who says you don't learn at these things.

The final Oscar video was the latest Bonobo track "No Reason", one of the stand out tracks on what is a rather excellent new album. There is a making-of video of this on Facebook somewhere which shows just how clever video making can be. This one has Gondry written all over it and it was probably my favourite video of the night. It's a two-take video - one continuous shot on the way in and the second on the way back.

Another Bug regular, Metronomy had their new video for "Hang Me Out To Dry". This one has a woman reminiscing on her previous relationships through the reflections of her car. A meh video but I like the track which features Robyn doing vocals and everything she does is great so I'm biased.

In the run up to Bug you come across a video that you know is going to be shown and on this occasion it was "Kolshik" by Leningrad described by the director (who also did Hardcore Henry and the Bad Mother Fucker video) as "Shit gets fucked up in a circus". Using the Memento style of story telling we get an amazing set of unfortunate events that'd make Lemony Snicket jealous. To figure out what's actually going takes a few viewings and that's always a good thing with a 4 minute video. Alternatively there's a reverse edit showing the video in sequential order. This one got the best response from the audience.

Lady Gaga's "John Wayne" track got a quick showing along with some Youtuber comments and a reaction video which was excruciating to watch.

Jump a few minutes in to see this rather sad individual going over the top for likes and clicks.

The final pairing were a couple of hip hop videos, the first being "Wyclef Jean" by Young Thug. This is another video I had seen a few weeks ago and it was good to see it again. It's a very meta telling of a video shoot that goes wrong.

The final video was a rather excellent track by man-of-the-moment Chance the Rapper who looks very different from what I remember. This one was a quite sweet way to finish with a great pay off at the end - don't jump to the end.

Once again a rather excellent, if long Bug, it came in at around 2 hours tonight. I'm not complaining...