AV:X DVD Series – Transambient/Mixmasters/RECreate/Spaced
Out
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+/B- Extras: C Videos: C+
The
Moonshine Movies label has issued the most ambitious Electronica, House, and
Techno videos series yet with their AV:X
series. It immediately called to mind
the failed MTV series Amp, which
tried to push the genres noted, yet offered overly repetitious and minimalist
clip after clip. These were all passed
off as the official clip for each song, but landed up being a mish-mash of overly
similar and very boring works that killed any chance for the music to be a
broad commercial success.
Here,
each clip often lasts as long as a maxi-single and the series is never stuck on
the idea of one video for a song. When
you see the cover of the given DVD you are looking at, that will give you an
idea of the extended programming inside.
It also works as a way to remind those who buy and keep the DVDs which
one has which material outside of the titles included. The result is something much freer and more
successful than Amp, including no
commercials. These are meant as
eye-candy, especially for parties n the tradition of nature footage projected
on walls from 16mm film in the Andy Warhol era.
These are ambitious for being made on that level, but a little can go a
long way, unless you are a serious fan of the music or this kind of basic
visual content.
The full
frame images are a mix of computer animation, digitally-generated stills with
sometimes simple animation, and various live action film and video footage. Spaced
Out has NASA and like footage. The
result is diverse, but not necessarily one of fidelity and clarity. All are region-free NTSC DVDs. Some of the computer work is already dated,
if that matters. The sound is passable
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo throughout, though RECreate attempts to offer a Dolby Digital AC-3 5.1 mix that has
more punch, but is also muddier. Part of
it is that an attempt at clarity and fidelity were not made, but the other is
that the Dolby compression simply cannot handle the music genres. DTS would have been the choice, especially
DTS 96/24, but the series is not over and maybe Moonshine will consider trying
that out. The few extras, when they do
surface, are interview segments and/or alternate videos.
Obviously,
this is a hit series, or there would not already be the ten volumes
available. If they continue the series
with DTS and anamorphically enhanced images, that will call for a follow-up
review. As it stands, fans of such
material might want to look into this series.
Otherwise, it is not a great Music Video collection per se, so expect
limits.
- Nicholas Sheffo
