April 2007: Jackie Bristow, Jakob, Kitsch, Ladi6, Little Bushman

Bullet train to nowhere, Wellington apocalypse, hidden songstress, angry old man, and woman about town.

Jackie Bristow “Tempted”

Gore-born singer-songwriter Jackie Bristow has the song “Tempted”, but the video does its best to hide her. It’s based around Jackie performing the song on a beach, but she’s wearing a cap pulled down low over her eyes – the result being a hat with a mouth. I don’t think this has been done deliberately – it looks like a practical response to a really sunny day. But the video adds to the vagueness with loads of fuzzy, blurry and shaky shots. Somewhere in the middle of it all, Jackie Bristow can be found.

Director: Michael Reihana

Jakob “Lonesome”

This video is over nine minutes long (though Nga Taonga has a “short version”) and the first three minutes feature my arch nemesis – shots from a Japanese train. From the city, the video goes into the countryside, then in some New Zealand bush where a man climbs a tree, then it’s aerial shots, flying over the local bush. But the question remains: why not Japanese wilderness and/or New Zealand cities?

Director: Ed Davis
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision – short version
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision – long version

Kitsch “Stay Right Here”

While Kitsch play in a studio, Milon from Cobra Khan stomps around downtown Auckland, verging on Bret’s Angry Dance from Flight of the Conchords. But then, seeing a 30-something punk getting angry and smashing up an old building is a lot more compelling than seeing a 15-year-old do it. What, one wonders, has happened in this character’s life that requires his adult stresses to be worked out teen style?

Director: Ivan Slavov
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

Ladi6 “Walk Right Up”

This is Ladi6’s first funded solo video and it’s so good to see her as the centre of the video, rather than lurking in the shadows or worse, as a disembodied voice. In this video, she’s split between two looks – a glam 1960s cabaret singer and a cool 2000s chick. Modern Ladi6 is hanging out in a car with friends, including her cousin Scribe, but, ever the businesswoman, she also sticks up gig posters around town. Shot by Oscar Kightley, the video looks cool and feels like a good reflection of music video life in 2006.

Director: Oscar Kightley
Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

Little Bushman “Mary”

Mary is a rich psychedelic jam and the video happily goes in that direction. It follows Mary, who is a homeless woman, pushing her belongings around Wellington in a shopping trolley. Like Mary, the camera feels like it’s sneaking around, distracted by shiny objects. The video comes to a climax with Mary unleashing her powers while watching store-front television sets broadcast the disintegrations of the world. So Wellington.

Director: Mark Albiston

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