Baitercell “Prototype”

1999-baitercell-prototypeYouTube uploader HeisW140 notes that the video came off a Baitercell CD-ROM, the first released by label Kog Transmissions. And it seems fitting that at least one music video from the ’90s should have had the CD-ROM treatment, blocky low-res image and all.

The video starts with images of static and burst of electric crackle before emerging into the streets of Auckland. Hey, there’s the block of Symonds Street after all the old buildings had been pulled down but before all the dull apartments were erected in their place. Circuit boards are given the same treatment, neatly suggesting the artist is at home with the computer as he is in the city.

The images are very strongly related to the music. It’s not just cutting to the beat, but it’s almost the feeling that the stuff we see is dancing to the music. In a way, it’s like an accidental predecessor of the Chemical Brothers “Star Guitar” video.

A lot of attention is put on a microscopic creature and the efforts of a pair of pliers and a piece of wire that seem to want to poke the creature. I feel a little sorry for the creature and I wish the wire would stop bothering it. The video is full of contrasts – the microscopic world of bugs versus wide open city spaces. Computer generated graphics versus a club full of sweaty people dancing.

And it’s those contrasts that make up the world of electronica – digital and analogue. A pixelly music video from a late ’90s CD-ROM given new life on a website of the ’10s.

Best bit: the lone hand reaching for itself in the reflective tunnel.

Next… the ages of man.

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