High Dependency Unit “El True East”

1998-hdu-el-true-eastI’d always assumed that HDU were something like a death metal band, mainly based on their name. So I’ve just had the shocking discovery that – like most bands out there – HDU are just pop. Well, pop hidden under a lot of feedback.

The video for “El True East” is at the artier end of the music video spectrum, but it works well. The video starts off shot in dark gold – fibres, leaves and a naked man crawling in gold sand. There are also flashes of old video, like a signal from another time trying to break through into the golden world.

This all jumps around as the music gets all Sonic Youth, then suddenly things calm down and the video enters a peaceful blue world. The naked crawler is now the naked swimmer, wiggling through bubbling liquid. Go to the light!

And from that blue world he emerges into a bright world. He just spends a lot of time standing upright, waving his arms around. And yeah, this is what you’d probably do if you’d just gone through a kind of rebirthing experience. Fade to white.

This video works really well. Directed by Richard Shaw and Sally MacDonald, it picks up on the tone of the song but gives the video a strong narrative that keeps it interesting, working perfectly with the music.

Best bit: man in the sand.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… man Jan.

2 thoughts on “High Dependency Unit “El True East””

  1. Just pop? That might be misunderstanding pop. There’s pop and there’s pop. Almost everything we hear is pop. Pop Pop is like your Great Uncle telling you stories about the war. Unless you were there it’s always going to sound not quite real enough. Pop made to order is like Steven Spielberg making Saving Private Ryan based on the stories of your Great Uncle. That stuff sounds like it’s been steriled and you can’t be sure the war even happened.

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