Gerard Marcus
Booker Stardrum is one of my favorite contemporary musicians. He has a way of layering rhythms that makes them fun to dissect both sonically and visually (if you ever see him live, which you should). I've seen him play with Cloud Becomes Your Hand, Weyes Blood, Landlady, Lee Ranaldo, Nels Cline–the list goes on–and every time, this artistic sensibility has made his performance stand out. His new solo music has been so intriguing because Booker is now fully at the head, creating dense rhythmic compositions lush with sonic textures for listeners to explore. So how do you create a music video for this style of music? There are many ways you could go about creating visuals that complement his style, but I can’t really think of any way to do it better than artist Miranda Javid has in Booker Stardrum’s latest video for “Drim Dram II.”
The name of the game in this video is speed and texture, with Javid's quick flights of imagery flickering like a dream or distant memory. The video is very experiential, morphing and changing just enough to keep the viewer both interested in what will happen next visually, and locked into the rhythm of Stardrum’s complex compositions. At 1:45 it's a relatively short piece. The amount of information thrown at you over this short runtime makes repeated viewings warranted, with the reward in the end being deeper understanding. I couldn’t really tell you of what, but I can say that it’s worth it. Be sure to catch Booker Stardrum live on his up coming tour:
Tour Dates
10/25 SOLO @ 2640 (Baltimore, MD)
10/26 SOLO @ Jerry’s on Front (Philadelphia, PA)
10/27 SOLO @ TBA (Upstate, NY)
10/28 SOLO @ Union Pool (Brooklyn, NY)
10/29 SOLO + trio TBA @ Experimental Sound Studio (Chicago, IL)
10/30 Trio w/ Katie Young + Matt Mehlan @ Comfort Station (Chicago, IL)
11/10 SOLO @ Beatnik Lounge (Joshua Tree, CA)
11/14 SOLO @ Zebulon (Los Angeles, CA)
11/15 SOLO + w/ Sontag Shogun’s Braided Sound @ The Luggage Store Gallery (San Francisco, CA)
11/17 Duo w/ Andrew Bernstein @ Coaxial (Los Angeles, CA)
11/18 SOLO @ SDCP (San Diego, CA)
Pre Order Link: http://bit.ly/2MtL4Xd