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8 Of My Favorite Audio/Visual Musical Experiences Ever Made
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Today’s list is inspired by my recent experience conceptualizing, filming and editing the Cherry Flavored Antacid’s first audio/video mix. It’s something I first thought about last year, when Philippe and I released our first 30-minute mix of all-original material as part of EDM Identity’s Summer Sessions mix series.
I always wanted to set this mix to a visualizer, because the truth is, Philippe and I have a very visual approach to music. We both imagine people, places and scenes when we’re working in the studio. We’re always talking about where our music is being played; on a beach in the ‘70s, in a candy-painted Chevy with hydraulics, in a space-age cocktail lounge, by Boys Noize one day, hopefully lol.
When this mix was released in 2021, I didn’t have the time, energy or resources to make a visualizer happen—but we knew we had to do something quick when this year’s mix got picked up as part of the Nest Fest Ukrainian fundraiser livestream. We’re not yet ready to play our sets live, and we aren’t interested in static camera DJ sets. This was finally the time to make my plan a reality.
With two weeks until showtime, I hired my very-talented videographer friend to compile his awe-inspiring collection of b-roll from around the world into a backdrop for our sonic universe. I wanted each track to have its own visual theme, and we’d tie it all together with clips of me doing something with Maraschino cherries, although I wasn’t totally sure what.
We met up in his mom's backyard and got to filming. It was the weekend after the US Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v Wade, so we grabbed a Sharpie and decided to sneak a bit of political anger into the chaotic end.
My friend crammed as much editing into two days as he could before literally leaving on a dangerous kayak adventure through the Florida Keys (he’s insane, but he did live), and I spent another hectic weekend finishing the job, downloading Blade Runner color-grading packs and copyright-free images of birds to get the job done.
In the end, I’m extremely proud of what we made, and while I excitedly look forward to our next project having more time and being made with even more intention and care, I know it’s a worthy first step in a career that will be full of cinematic, theatrical, conceptual audio/visual experiences!
As I celebrate our 2022 mix release forever and ever, amen, it got me thinking about all the dope audio/visual music albums that have inspired me through the years. I know a good lot of you have watched some of these already, sometimes at the mercy of me taking control of the television and screaming about “OMG HAVE YOU SEEN THIS?!”
But in the case that you haven’t! I’m sharing seven of my favorite audio/visual experiences ever made right here, so you can host your own music-movie marathon.
Watch all of these right now, back-to-back-to-back, or bookmark this newsletter and return to it whenever you want to put something on the screen and set a vibe. “Like” all the YouTube pages and come back to them again and again. Tell me which ones you’ve seen and which ones are new to you. Tell me which one is your favorite. Tell me about mixes I missed.
Enough rambling, on to the list!
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