Isaac Eastgate, who directed Django Django’s new video, recently posted another music video that gives you an idea of what to expect. Per the Vimeo decription: “Over 80 hours of time lapse footage make up this chemistry experiment cum music video, in which scale, perspective, and motion are confused to describe the space in which ideas form and compete.” If you’ve heard the Beta Band-linked British pop experimentalists’ Mercury Prize-nominated 2012 self-titled debut album, you know that sums them up to (the square root of) a T.
These SPIN Best New Artists alums’ previous video, for “Hail Bop,” was a computer-world trip to the sort of sci-fi paradise the Hale-Bopp comet cultists must’ve imagined. Eastgate’s clip for another Django Django track, the shaggy, surf-splashed psych-folk of “Life’s a Beach,” is no less elaborate. Life at first looks more like an alphabet soup, as the the letters of the song’s title spread out against a red backdrop, but then we see the band performing, in full, psychedelically squiggly glory. Eastgate underwent another chemistry experiment of sorts this time, so we’ll let him explain it via e-mail:
The video is based on optical feedback, which you can find some information about on the internet, it involves pointing an analogue camera at a monitor displaying its own output, so that the image is forced through an infinite loop and is degraded and modified in the process.
Without trying to sound elitist about it, my technique involves finding a very finely balanced setup in which pattern generation occurs and the infinite loop spontaneously creates complex abstract patterns out of nowhere.
The footage of the band (shot by Jared Eberhardt in New York) was processed by pre-editing the motion, fades and edits, and then taking each frame and sending it through the optical loop until it was reduced to lines and patterns by the sharpening hardware in the camera and by the resolution limit of its sensor. This was done something like 2000 times in total, unfortunately without any automation. The resulting “animated” footage was then edited with basic layering and some dodgy footage of a lake near my house.
So: Life might be a beach, but only certain mad scientists like Django Django and their video director know how to catch the wave.
Django Django tour dates:
December 8 – Lisbon, PT @ Vodafone MEXE Festival
December 21 – London, UK @ Shepherds Bush Empire
December 29 – Lorne Victoria, AU @ Falls Festival
December 31 – Marion Bay, Tasmania, AU @ Falls Festival
January 1 – Sydney, AU @ Field Day Festival
January 4 – Busselton, AU @ Southbound Festival
January 10 – Brisbane, AU @ The Zoo
January 11 – Sydney, AU @ The Metro
January 12 – Melbourne, AU @ The Hi-Fi
February 7 – Newcastle, UK @ Academy*
February 8 – Manchester, UK @ Academy 1*
February 9 – Leeds, UK @ Academy*
February 11 – Glasgow, UK @ Academy*
February 12 – Nottingham, UK @ Rock City*
February 13 – Liverpool, UK @ Academy*
February 15 – Norwich, UK @ UEA*
February 16 – Birmingham, UK @ Academy*
February 17 – Cardiff, UK @ Uni Great Hall*
February 19 – Bristol, UK @ Academy*
February 20 – Bournemouth, UK @ Academy*
February 21 – Brighton, UK @ Dome*
February 23 – Brixton, UK @ Academy*
March 6 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
March 7 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
March 8 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
March 9 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
March 11 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
March 12 – Toronto, ON @ Opera House
March 13 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
March 15 – Chicago, IL @ Cabaret Metro
March 16 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Ave
March 19 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Ballroom
March 20 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
March 22 – San Francisco, CA @ Public Works
March 23 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre
* = NME Awards Tour with Miles Kane, Palma Violets, and Peace
