According to the duo’s bio on Amplifier, “What’s Down Low” was “the #2 most played track on NZ Alt Radio for 2004”. Well, that’s something.
This “cult breaks track” (says the YouTube description) features guest vocals from Miss Bex Bexasty, but the video features neither Bailtercell, Schumacher or Bexasty.
Instead it features footage of urban scenes, both indoors and outdoors, with the images sliced into smaller boxes on screen. It’s like that trend for 1960s-style overlapping boxes, but stripped of its humanness and given a cold, hard computer personality.
“Show me hell,” the lyrics implore. And we’re shown a deserted road straddled by big power pylons, shot in black and white footage that’s more a depressing grey than sharp black and white.
Then things get micro with a close up of some fat raindrops, and we see them falling down onto the city streets, filmed like falling bomb rather than delicate droplets. It’s obvious that a lot of stuff in the video is computer generated. But is all of it? It’s hard to tell, with the low-ish res version on YouTube and the greyness of the footage. But I like that – an uncanny valley city.
Best bit: the star-shape formed by the upwards camera angle through the city buildings.
Next… off the wall.