(06.15.05) With the ease of digital video (both in the shooting and the editing),
it has become more commonplace for artists to experiment with
releasing DVD material in concert with their new records, though
Rémy Pelleschi’s approach was to dive more fully into the
visual world. Dioxydes is DVD only; you get the visual with
the audio whether you are interested in it or not. The delight of
Pelleschi’s work in Dioxydes is that one’s interest is arrested
and captivated within the first few minutes of the DVD.
Pelleschi shot all the video himself, clearly working with some of the
music already in mind as he gathered shots of skyscrapers, industrial
wastelands, abstract art installations, wind turbines and decrepit
underground railway stations. The world captured by Dioxydes
is bereft of human habitation though every visual element is the
result of human architectural and artistic effort. Opener
“CO2” cracks with a burst of thunder and rain as we veer
into the damaged stairway leading down to an abandoned subway station.
“PbO2” is full of movement as the camera speeds past
factories and warehouses. Overexposed light burns retinal stripes and
solar umbras on the images while shadows flood the faces of cranes and
towers. The wind turbines of “MnO2” are cut into split
screens, halving and quartering the screen with the radial motion of
the tall windmills. The beats echo with the sonority of wind tunnels
while the melody soars in concert with the superimposition of
digitally-added contrails of directional arrows. “NO2“
strays into ominous soundtrack territory while still shots of
fascinating architecture are marred with signal noise and digital
manipulation. It’s like watching a advertisement for an architecture
firm that specializes in 4-D constructs. “RhO2” begins
with shots of bleaching skies, clouds burning into full-screen
whiteness, before the mutter of caustic beats splits the scene into a
slow-motion fascination with a single light post against the scattered
clouds of the blue sky and a flickering hand-cranked version of the
same obsessive examination of light poles. “OSO2″ begins
on the ground with a slow crawl across the face of a satellite dish,
ventures into space to see the world through a round porthole, before
returning the planet once again through the bowl of another
transceiver.
Musically, Pelleschi has taken a more cinematic approach, probably
tempered by the intent of the DVD. Most of the abrasive metallic
beats of Oxydes have been removed, and the empty spaces have
been filled with whispering atmospherics and the sub-basement clatter
and grumble of dying machinery. Vats pf viscous oil bubble in
“LiO2” while tiny melodies whistle from broken analog
synthesizers in an ode to Vangelis’ vision of Bladerunner.
“RuO2” spears analog synthesizers to a flickering roadway,
the center stripe adding resonance to the underlying crackle and
murmer of static ghosting through the track. The evolution of melody
and rhythm of “RhO2” cleverly captures both the slow
rotation of the camera lens and the underlying rapid fascination with
the light post that shivers through the track. Mlada Fronta has
eschewed noise for atmosphere, detaching itself from the machinery of
the rhythmic noise industry and vanishing into the widescreen
landscape of cinematic electronics.
The DVD also includes “Le Cycle Du Soleil,” a collection of eleven
tracks set to a wandering Moir pattern. While certainly not
as visually absorbing as Dioxydes, “Le Cycle Du Soleil” allows
the listener to more readily disappear into the music. Pelleschi
maintains the same level of musical evolution here as he does with the
video-based tracks. It is like getting two albums in one; I just wish
there were MP3’s available on the DVD of the whole record because there
is a great deal of stunning work here that I’d like to listen to
without the need of the DVD player. Price of progress, I suppose.
I’ve got extremely high praise for Pelleschi on Dioxydes,
though. The DVD sets a new standard for audio/visual releases.
[While the website says the DVD is in “DVD-9 PAL” format, I had no
trouble playing it on several different US-coded DVD players.]
Dioxydes is out now on Parametric.
