#60: "euphoric tones and a cathartic resolution"
Welcome to issue #60 of THIS NEWSLETTER CANNOT SAVE YOU, your sporadically delivered puree of short form media suggestions. I’d like to say I could commit to a more regular publishing scheduling, but that would be lying and I only do that when I’m committing an old school heist. You should see me, I’ll just blithely saunter into a local TV station and distract the security guard by telling him I’m there to inspect the ducts, while meanwhile my crew is shoveling a vault’s worth of old Betamax tapes into our getaway van. In my defense, I think the Residents are on one of those tapes. Anyway here’s a puree of recommendations, offering glimpses of wondrous territory alongside a little lowbrow business to keep it real of course. As always, it’s a minor adventure in a bulleted list around here.
Scottovision
“Time Tides” (2023) - If I had to pick a favorite animator, I might very well choose Hideki Inaba. He’s the creator of the canonic psychedelic music video “Slowly Rising,” and his stand-alone piece “Flow” is equally stunning. This video arrived late last year, a tantalizing and all-too-brief abstract depiction of how “the flow of time shines eternally in each fleeting moment.”
“Server Room” (2019) - The Parisian directing duo AB/CD/CD created this visual interpretation of Richard Brautigan’s poem, “All watched over by machines of loving grace.” The poem imagines a theoretically utopian setting of “a cybernetic meadow where mammals and computers live together in mutually programming harmony.” The video puts a modern dystopian spin on it, seeming to illustrate a moment in which humanity teetered off balance and perhaps lost the opportunity for such harmony.
“Neptunes” (2024) - Electronic artist Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and house artist Joe Goddard from Hot Chip have teamed up for a new EP called “Neptunes,” and the music video for the title track is an absolutely gorgeous depiction of alien life beyond imagination, squirming and pulsing and undulating in the thick atmosphere of an alien world, which by the way, that world is Earth, and these are deep sea creatures, slick with hypercolor and slime, literally glittering at times although maybe that’s just microplastics. Video by Aron Sanchez-Baranda, a renowned wildlife videographer and photographer.
“HERD(mentality)” (2024) - In choreographer Benjamin Jonsson’s new piece, each member of a troupe from the London Contemporary Dance School is given an opportunity to break out and perform solo while the rest of the dance forges ahead, challenging the tight lockstep typical of the form. It’s a sharp and to-the-point statement about individuality against a backdrop of uniformity.
“The Sands Between” (2021) - This short film by Aidan Tanner captures the moment when a woman realizes something has gone sideways with her relationship in a life-changing way. It stars Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy, and it seems to rush by in an instant.
“Alien Video Games Console” (2023) - For those challenging games that can only be controlled by plunging your hand into an alien symbiote.
“Mirror Party” (2023) - Filmmaker Bridey Elliott directed, co-wrote, and co-starred in this brisk and loopy short film about two friends who roleplay a pending breakup one of them is facing, only to get a little more into character than either of them expected. It’s a film that’s at least in part about committing to the bit, as it were, and the two leads are game for playing it to the hilt—but even at its most absurd, you’re still getting excellent character work from Elliott and her co-star (and co-writer), Angela Trimbur. The initial goofiness of the scenario can’t mask the real hurt that underlies the whole exercise.
“Announcing Stryreechlinstral” (2009) - The setup for this fake pharmaceutical advert has become commonplace, but I like to imagine this video is an ur-version of the comedic premise. The language is just so evocative that the piece smoothly slips into hilarity without breaking a sweat. And as The Aristocrats proved, just because you know the joke doesn’t mean you know the joke. Comedy by Rhodes and Rose. BONUS VID: Don’t forget to take your Thalasin!
“Dysco” (2014) - The creator of this 3D animated short film, Simon Russell, describes it as “an experimental short…about synesthetic drones, neon dubstep and the surveillance state.” It’s got a “Blade Runner by Pixar” vibe, if that helps sway you to take a look. Insert your own variation on putting the dystopia into disco, etc.
“In This Beautiful Blanket Of Fuzz” (2022) - This mesmerizing music video by experimental rockers The Owl takes an obscure Russian animated sci-fi short film and runs it through highly psychedelic glitchification filters, until it’s suitable visual embellishment for the music’s “pulsing dark drones with tense, flickering layers, that eventually make way for euphoric tones and a cathartic resolution.” The track is from an album appropriately titled I Have Seen Things You Would Not Believe, which is name-your-price on Bandcamp.
Exit Music
Sending you out this issue with a pair of DJ sets you might enjoy: Tycho released a recording of his annual downtempo Burning Man Sunrise Set, called Infinite to coincide with his new album release called Infinite Health; and The Orb released a 30-year anniversary mix, an enjoyably ambient affair, in anticipation of their upcoming anthology Orboretum that somehow tries to capture a snapshot overview of their entire catalog. I would love to regale you with one of my many stories in which The Orb featured prominently on the local soundtrack, but I’ve been advised by one of my few remaining rational brain cells to keep a lid on it.
Here's the YouTube playlist with this issue's recos. Please enjoy responsibly.
Until next time, I remain your friendly correspondent, thinking of you,
Scotto
