Concerned Albino Rallies Child Army For Jamie xx’s Crazy Music Video
Hey guys! ICYMI Jamie xx just released a video for his 2015 intensely-layered track Gosh, the opening single off of his 2015 debut album ‘In Colour’. Now, if you’re a fan of Jamie xx (one part of British outfit The xx) then you would know that Gosh already has a music video. But Jamie xx, being Jamie xx, decided that one video was simply not enough.
Directed by Romain Gavras, who is responsible for killer videos like MIA’s Bad Girls and Kanye & Jay Z’s No Church In The Wild, the clip is one of epic proportions. The premise is slightly abstract, it involves a dystopian landscape where a lot of people are glued to Virtual Reality headsets and live in communist era buildings. This seems to concern the local albino cult leader (or gang leader?) so he rallies his army/followers of children underneath an Eiffel Tower. Though this may sound like a fever dream you had once, it’s actually pretty cool!
Watching the clip you may be wondering “wait, is this filmed in Paris…or China??”. The truth is the latter. The video was made in Tianducheng, a luxury real estate development in Hangzhou, China that was built as an exact replica of Paris. If you’re puzzled as to why it looks so…bleak, that’s because it is almost entirely abandoned.
The town, which is fitted to house 10,000 residents, has barely 2,000, which is mainly due to the fact that this mini-Paris is located smack-bang in a bunch of farmlands (so basically the middle of nowhere). Apparently they are building a French inspired amusement park nearby, which if Tianducheng is anything to go by, it may just end up as the second coming of Banksy’s Dismaland (his exhibition/terrifying Disneyland parody).
The film required around 400 actors and did not use a speck of CGI or 3D modelling, which is pretty impressive. Where they managed to find a family of Chinese albino’s with grillz is a mystery left unsolved (is there a hotline for this sort of thing, or a society??). Nevertheless, it’s a dope video. It fits well with military style percussion in the song and sampling that is almost demonic in sound. The track is an awesome development from the more dulcet style of The xx, that packs more of a punch that’s for sure.
But back to the video. The cult leader seems to be very stressed out for some reason. Perhaps there’s a lot of pressure that comes with guiding a band of children who worship you. Jamie xx says it’s his favourite video for one of his songs to date…and you know what, he’s right! Top notch stuff.
