Underground
Underground
Written by Mustafa Kandaz | Review by Moumita Deb
Underground uses some gorgeous animation to depict a cynical irony with powerful and constantly shifting visuals. Based solely on its ability to make something out of nothing, this is admittedly one of the most memorable music videos of the year. Its trippy visual aesthetics is perfectly manifested on screen in this video from the band that rampantly uses light orbs, crazy figures, and plenty of sparkles. The light dance visual aesthetic perfectly matches the bouncy groove of the song and creates a grim ambience. It also employs a healthy dose of sarcasm towards the gradual degeneration of human race and death of human emotions in the process of materialistic evolution. Indie pop band Love Ghost carries on their legacy of maintaining a deep rooted relevance with well thought- out music videos, and such is the case with this video. The band creates a gorgeous stop motion backdrop, resulting in an ecstatic visual experience unlike any you’ve ever seen before. This video is not the typical three minutes of highly stylized vignette promulgated by most rock bands, where the producer attempts to bedazzle viewers by means of over exaggerated visual effects.
Finnegan Bell on vocals, guitar and piano and Mya Greene on viola display rare virtuosity. Inspired by the 90s grunge and hard rock subculture, the animation reflects the mental state of the suffering multitude trampled down by the vice of mundane desires. The band blends hard rock, garage and moody pop for a unique sonic fusion. Music seems to be heavily influenced by their personal experiences with addiction, mental illness, heartache, love and coming of age. Despite the band’s youthful vivacity, this video merges a nostalgic blend of distorted guitar melodies, heavy drums and emotionally stimulated lyrics.This composition by Love Ghosts seems to be greatly influenced and starkly inspired by a mix of old universal horror films meshed with iconic grunge artists such as Nirvana and Alice in Chains. The idea of a music video is to generate promotion, with an aim of increasing awareness and sales and Underground most amazingly meets this challenge.
The intense atmosphere of the imaginative, vibrant and thought provoking shots brings the haunting tone of the song to life. The stark yet simplistic animation style based largely on the wobbly movement of the symbolic figures fits the mood perfectly. The beauty of this approach is that it gets you to listen carefully to the lyrics. This is something that can be difficult to achieve with music videos, since the action distracts from the song itself. The concept works exceedingly well and stylistically speaking it is spot on. It’s not a typical music video as the theme is rather captivating and it encourages a slow but deep indulgence. Though unpolished and raw round the edges, it infuses a gentle touch of warm psychedelic quality. Success of this video lies in its groundbreaking animation technique.
Moumita is a Kolkata based independent filmmaker and film critic. She holds a post- graduation degree in English literature from Jadavpur University. Reading novels of a wide range of authors of all genres from classic to contemporary has always been Moumita’s passion and calling. She also takes a strong liking in playing the Spanish guitar & has participated in quite a few concerts. Moumita has done her certification course in Cinematography, Video Editing and Filmmaking.
