cd+dvd – Ninja Tune
The language of videoclips has undergone many semiotical revolutions in the 90s, the years when the possibility of video editing landed on home computers. The consequential big increase in the number of experiments and the development of new electronic music instruments created a new generation of videomakers who are ready to play with techniques invented in the recent past. The Hexstatic grew up in that gold mine of irriverent electronic manipulation that Ninja Tune has always been. The duo formed by Stuart Warren-Hill and Robin Brunson, with its history that kept it away from art galleries and into the raves and clubs, states its uniqueness boldly. At the core of their production, in fact, there’s a precise concept: the use of video as another musical instrument. The title of this work its a verbal reversal of ViewMaster, an old toy made by Fisher Price which allowed to see in 3D some specially drawn images. This title, interpreted this way, synthesizes the rhythm that influences the images, and skillfully uses the many languages and sublanguages of video to achieve a flourishing of elements, almost always pulsating in a perfectly synchronized way. Even the sequential nature of arcade videogames is juxtaposed to a sound flow that is a crossover of many genres (hip-hop, electronic, ambient, techno). The constant curiosity towards new forms of fruition has allowed the inclusion of some 3D videos made by decoupling the red and blue color channels and viewable with the classic cardboard eyeglasses. This anthology feels rigorous and amusing at the same time, reflecting a hybrid attitude that, nowadays, is more and more natural.