High Five Music Monthly: Margo Mars
Leo Season has just ended and so I’m reflecting on the month that was. For me, August is a vibe. It’s Joy. It’s lazy days. It’s flying high. It’s layin’ low. It’s lavish and it’s always over way too quick. I want to use this opportunity to highlight the richness and diversity of music and visuals. Sharing music on film that is funny, emotional, raw, contagious, furious, charming, intelligent and highly inspiring. It’s been a good month. So here’s my High Five...
Lil Dicky & GaTa - 'Season 2 Episode 10: DAVE'
Production: Lief
Director: Alma Har’el
In this final episode of DAVE, Lief director Alma Har’el creates a VMA performance for Lil Dicky and GaTa as all the storylines of season two click together in one major finale. Alma watched season one of DAVE during the start of Covid-19, and tweeted about it. A year on, the show’s creator and star Dave Burd and Alma work together on this, which is proof of both their genius imaginations. The creativity and precision is phenomenal. It’s lit. “She’s such a visionary and a force, and I knew what I was trying to achieve for this finale, and what it took." said Dave Burd.
Singeli Sound - 'High Speed'
Production: NTS
Director: Chantal Adams
NTS has been offering a unique musical vision for ten years now. High energy dance music befits summer, and this is Singeli music from Tanzania - "If you don’t want to dance, you can just shake your leg or head”. Brilliant at 300bpm...
Lizzo ft. Cardi B - 'Rumors'
Production: UnderWonder
Director: Tanu Muino
VFX: Mathematic
I really love watching this after seeing the scenes in Dar Es Salaam above. On top of that, these lyrics speak for themselves - whilst giving it 100%, these two women are confronting all those 'spending all their time tryin’ to break a woman down' when there are 'realer' things going on.
Elton John x Dua Lipa - 'Cold Heart' PNAU Remix
Production: Blinkink
Director: Raman Djafari
Bravo Raman! This is bizarre and it’s definitely a vibe. Art yet charming. Everybody who worked on this probably did it because it felt good. And they probably all surprised themselves and then jumped at the chance. The curation of Raman to create the visuals is perfect.
Squarepusher - 'Terminal Slam'
Production: Rhizomatiks
Director: Daito Manabe
Edit: Nomad
Post: +Ring
Going out with a bang, I chose ‘Terminal Slam’ as my finale. I’m a long time fan of Japanese artist Daito Manabe (check his wondrous video 'Come Behind Me, So Good!' for our mutual friend, KAZU). Here, he shoots Tokyo’s famous Shibuya in live-action as a canvas for his spectacular and glitchy visual art. AI software recognises and labels everything in the footage, particularly the people and advertising space, which it then starts to hack, replacing it with pixelated, mountainous 3D textures that pulsate violently from billboards and screens in time with Squarepusher’s music. Replacing ad space with art. So simple, so effective ;)
