Boards Of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy (Dir. Melissa Olson)
The highly-touted first official video from BoC comes from Melissa Olson (smokes quantity?)..
Dayvan at google video since the top links seem to be broken.
Dude, look at this (before I delete it) videos.antville.org
dupe!
I know! It was pure serendipity, though. I didn't see yours before I posted mine. Good choice in screen name btw ;) But I'd put the mp4 and win up there too..
antville fite!
weird how we both picked the same still.
I know, I love it! (the vid too)
i think i do too. it's definitely very them, cloying new-ageyness and all. the film grade and the footage selection are wonderful.
if i had any complaints, it'd be about that passage between outer space and the bright blue sky -- it needed a more gradual transition rather than a hard cut.
i my,it's justso good,just what Iwas hoping for...."skyliner" from the warp page is AWESOME!
It is them, I'm not surprised at all by this vid. But I think the visuals went really well with the music (though I admit extreme bias here).
Man fell to earth, hit water, and was reborn...... as a surfer.
I always imagined them as collectors of stock footage and this promo is no exception.
I loved it right up until it turned into a surfing video. It went from a pure 10 to about a 6. Ah well.
... in fact, the surfing segment at the end is such a jarring incongruity and so artistically off-note it makes me think this is not an official video, but something put together by someone without the same artistic fidelity as the BoC guys.
But what do I know... :
The "BOC Guys" would likely laugh at the concept of artistic fidelity and go back to dancing around a fire on the beach and surfing.
awesome video. the surfing didn't bother me so much but i have to agree the first half is a ten.
stinker. any video that's 100% about the wow factor is shit. the transition from skydiving dude to surfer dude put the vid from a 10 to an 11 in crap factor.
Something I did that may be of interest: www.davebush.com
some pretty subtle surfing footage there. nice kittinger stock, too. not sure how i feel about the combination. tho i guess something this wallpaperish is what the music deserves...
vido: the wow factor? Not sure I get what you mean. As lusk noted, I think the video's about that whole pushing mankind/oneself to its limits. I think that's something BoC are interested in, especially given the psychedelic/religious nature of their shit. This is either a good drug video, or about man trying to commune/fight with God/himself then finding himself at peace. or both
see also Koyaanisqatsi's end scene for a different fall from grace..
KEV: I never said any such thing nor do I believe in what you said I said.
This one's a stinker. But funny considering the BOC guys in the edit room with no more jump footage but a box full of surf clips. So, well......
BTW, I do admire how much you read into these promos. I dont think anything you stated above is even remotely in this one.
Im with setanot There is no overarching artistic message in this video, your just meant to go with it. Its about pure sensation, visceral, tactile real world input that overwhelms the senses and goes beyond verbal or written explanation. Conscious expanding Euphoria I am bias however, I love Boards and I love footage of US Space exploration particularly the Kittinger stuff. 102,800 feet, 4.5 minutes of freefall, Mach 0.9 and ending up in the green room Thats Cool.
Disappointing. I'm fine with eye candy for it's own sake, but the obviousness of this treatment only seems to rob the music of it's evocativeness.
So... they're direct about what inspires them. Shocking. Good change, really.
It's not like they're new to the video thing, anyway. They were making movies long before they were releasing albums. They know what they want, and that's what they make.
I'm with vidbot's explanation. I think BoC would accept all of these interpretations. It's about nothing and everything at the same time. Although using words to describe it is becoming less meaningful for me, so perhaps I do agree with vidbot.
The critics are an insecure mess here. The critics might prefer a Bjork video instead?
still marveling over this gem: "any video that's 100% about the wow factor is shit."
thanks for the kittinger link, zoom.
Anyone know where the surfing footage might be from?
It's Laird hamilton at Teahupoo.
Sorry, guys, I've seen this on DVD, and this is an excellent video, as long as you can buy into their instrumental music.
analysis: I think this is closely in line with the feel of Koyaanisqatsi, and especially in touch with (and perhaps an answer to?) the final segment of Naqoyqatsi.
Language doesn't quite work here as an apt descriptor, but this vid seems to explore man's place in a dangerously idyllic world. It could also be a story of pushing humanity to its limit, the story of Joseph Kittinger himself. It could also be about nothing in particular.
Whatever the case, it can be argued that the music and visuals are very closely interwoven. The superb editing and possible stories sometimes tightly, sometimes loosely follow the song's magnanimous submersion. But the immersive music allows for this fluid connection between sound, vision, and story. The only jump in judgement is the somewhat tenuous connection between jumper and surfer.
Personally I think it's done very well. It'll probably be in my top 10 at the end of the year.. (It's good to sit on videos like this and absorb them later.) I look forward to more videos from them.
I always had a problem with surfers. Not with just their long blond hair and careless ways, but how they tend to always find a way to bring everything in the world back to their sport...surfing… I cannot believe they have hijacked this amazing cosmic footage and tried to correlate it in any way with surfing. For all its worth this clip should have been made for the fuking beach boys.
