Jamie xx, set to visions of a gradually greener Mars

June 6, 2015 1:41 PM

"Gosh" - music by Jamie xx, something of an homage to early 1990s UK club culture, with visuals of a slowly terraformed Mars by Erik Wernquist, who was seen on MetaFilter before for "Wanderers," a similarly gorgeous, realistic film of space exploration.
posted by filthy light thief (22 comments total)

The New Yorker review of Jamie xx's album, In Colour, includes references to items easily found around the 'net, but I'll include them here for simplicity:

"Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore," a 15 minute short which

consists of found footage loosely documenting the history of British dance culture, from the discos and all-night northern-soul parties of the seventies to the illegal warehouse raves and decadent night clubs of the eighties and nineties

With audio that is rarely synchronized, similar but in reverse for "Gosh," as the music is much more upbeat, especially when compared to the slow zooms and pans of the video.

"All Raving Under One Roof," a change of pace for Jamie xx's work to that point (a mere year back);

a song whose structure and style were a way for Smith to reconnect with his British roots. It had a pensive, unfinished quality, built on an airy steel-drum melody and vocal samples of fans talking about British rave culture, with tap-dancing drums that seemed to fade in and out of the mix at whim. It sounded less like an all-night dance party than like a ghostly radio documentary.

Noted sample source: All Junglists: A London Somet’ing Dis, a 1994 documentary on the UK jungle scene. Bonus: Spin lists ten songs that inspired "All Under," with embedded YouTube clips

Jamie xx Boiler Room London x Young Turks DJ Set, the jaunt through dance culture nostalgia mentioned in the New Yorker article.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:49 PM on June 6, 2015 [2 favorites]

Wow, that's a great video, and I'm really feeling the song too. Jamie xx is a very talented producer - the soaring synth lead that appears in the middle of the song is mixed "wrong" from a technical standpoint (too loud and distorted, not eq'd to fit with the rest of the production in the usual way), but it works brilliantly. That's the kind of production trick that only someone who knows the rules well enough to break them would come up with.
posted by Frobenius Twist at 1:52 PM on June 6, 2015 [2 favorites]

I have been unapologetically obsessed with this song for the past few days. I can't drive anywhere without it playing. I tried to play some Tori Amos this morning in the car and got halfway through Cornflake Girl before I gave up and went back to Gosh.

This video is stunning.
posted by special agent conrad uno at 1:57 PM on June 6, 2015

This also reminds me of Four Tet's brilliant album Beautiful Rewind, which is another record that looks back to the early 90s while looking forward as well.
posted by Frobenius Twist at 1:59 PM on June 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

Eventually, a synthesizer cuts through the fray, which recalls the melody of the 1991 rave anthem “Belfast,” by Orbital, lifting the mood from dark to light.

Ah, right, I knew it was familiar. Great tune, cool visualization.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:17 PM on June 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

Before the "Belfast" sound, there's something that starts fading in around 2m 24s that sounds like something from M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes," which is probably a sample of something older.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:34 PM on June 6, 2015

Beautiful song, but I'm completely entranced by the video. Taking something as epic as terrforming Mars, and making it into something so subtle and light, using images and angles which draw upon the sea of images from the Mars Orbiter. It's incredibly wonderful.
posted by honestcoyote at 3:57 PM on June 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

The video (and song) are superb, but the youtube compression artifacts are horrendous. Really bad on the black around the planet shots. Would love to see it in better quality.
posted by samworm at 4:22 PM on June 6, 2015

I'm rereading Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy right now, and while this is not the music I would have expected to associate with that, it kinda works.
posted by feckless at 4:23 PM on June 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

The album is a joy. It has been my running playlist for the past week.
posted by Fizz at 4:25 PM on June 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

yessssssssssssss
posted by Coda at 4:27 PM on June 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

Oh holy God this is amazing. So unabashedly huge--that lead is like "I am going to be everywhere and I know it, but I'm actually good so who gives a fuck."

Sometimes I wonder how often someone sits in a studio and goes "oh holy shit I really have something here" and is right about it? Because did I mention I love this to tiny little pieces? Jamie xx could have reasonably said "OHAI, here's The Song Of Summer 2015, you're welcome, give me money now."

I'm looking forward to a remix that can actually deliver on the energy that kind of buildup can generate.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 4:30 PM on June 6, 2015 [2 favorites]

and oh my god that bass drone thing that starts at like 1:55

it is melting my whole brain

I want to go clubbing now wtf.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 4:34 PM on June 6, 2015 [2 favorites]

Sorry, I'm an Acheist and I don't believe in Gosh.
but still, that terraforming video is cool... Slartibartfast did a great job on those fjords...
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:20 PM on June 6, 2015

Great post. I've been listening to In Colour all week as I work. I love it.
posted by Nevin at 5:37 PM on June 6, 2015

I agree with Fizz, the rest of the album is pretty fantastic. A few more tracks have been released with music, for your listening (and viewing) pleasure:

Sleep Sound (music video for the extended single track; the clip draws upon the listening experiences of a dozen members of the Manchester Deaf Centre, whose ages range from five to 27. “The relationship between silence and music is a big part of what I am trying to express with my work,” said Mattioli in a press release.

Loud Places feat. Romy is a pretty standard-type music video, well-shot footage of night-time skating and confetti.

Girl is minimally animated video.

You can also hear SeeSaw, which appears to be an early version in collaboration with Four Tet, and without Romy's vocals as found in the final album version.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:37 PM on June 6, 2015

Gosh led me to listen to Belfast led me to listen to Moby's God Moving Over The Face Of The Waters.
posted by Monochrome at 11:10 PM on June 6, 2015

Any relation to Charlie XX?
posted by klangklangston at 12:40 PM on June 7, 2015

I think for perspective this review should be included here:

https://boomkat.com/downloads/1276710-jamie-xx-in-colour-album-us-edition
posted by debord at 5:00 AM on June 8, 2015

This also reminds me of Four Tet's brilliant album Beautiful Rewind, which is another record that looks back to the early 90s while looking forward as well.

Rather fitting, then, to hear Gosh next to a cut from that album in Cut Copy's new mixtape, Forest through the Trees (streaming), which has a very Balearic vibe.

(And how is the US edition different from the UK edition of In Colour? Same track titles and lengths, from what I see.)
posted by filthy light thief at 9:42 AM on June 11, 2015

Found a not-terrible remix. Actually it gets really good through the break and after. First half needs some work.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 5:50 PM on June 11, 2015

Any relation to Charlie XX?

I think you're talking about Charli XCX, who adopted that stage name after her MSN Messenger handle. Jamie xx, on the other hand, adopted the name as a member of The xx, which was the age of the band when they formed (each 20 yrs old), and because they liked the look of the name while "dicking around in Microsoft Word."

Shared link: Microsoft products, who knew?
posted by filthy light thief at 8:07 AM on June 12, 2015 [1 favorite]