Best Music Vids - Portishead.
‘The Rip’ is one of my favourite Portishead songs. It is taken from ‘Third’ (which also happens to be my favourite one of their albums).
I had heard the track quite a few times before I finally came across its official video on You Tube. I’m not sure what I expected it to be like and I certainly wasn’t prepared for it. Portishead have always released interesting videos to accompany their singles, but this one is the best to date.
The whole thing is an animation. It is the first Portishead video to be made in this style and I certainly hope there will be more to come. It is surreal, beautiful, arty, thought-provoking and scary. There is a very strong feel of Art College about the entire film; it is pretty much like viewing the exam work of a degree student. I have spent a long time trying to find out who it was that created it, but up to now I have found very little information. What a shame it is for such a wonderful artist to remain unknown.
If this were the work of a student, then he/she would be getting the very highest marks on offer. It is an amazing piece of animation and would still be an absolute joy to watch without the song. Having it with such a stonkingly good track by Portishead is just an enormous bonus feature.
It’s a pity that more groups do not experiment in such creative fields. Drawings by the right artist can go so well with a song and express far more than traditional film footage can. The first band to use this method was A-ha with, ‘Take on me’ back in 1985. Since then there have been surprisingly few musicians to use the medium of animated drawings for their videos.
By the way, I have just been told what my cousin preferred for her birthday present, and you are going to laugh when I tell you how specific it is. So now I need to sort out where to purchase a yellow sun lounger cover , any guidance is welcome!