by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Brooklyn's Operator Music Band have released two of my favorite music videos of the past few years. "Bebop Radiohaus" and "EE Unsh," both directed by the band's own Dara Hirsch, capturing the essence of what makes Operator Music Band so damn special with vivid colors, choreographed moments of dancing, spastic yet elegant cuts, and unflinching creative focus. Their video's are brilliant, delightfully strange, and visually stunning. Naturally I jumped at the opportunity to premiere the band's new video... except this one isn't directed by Hirsch... but instead Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat who found himself enamored with "Creative Tube Bending" and it's whirlwind textures.
Pichardo-Espaillat brings the song to life with a never-ending animated series of abstract designs, flowing from one scene to the next in time with Operator Music Band's super tight groove. Drawing inspiration from the 80's and the band's art (with an appearance by animated versions of Hirsch and Jared Hiller), the digitized design and morphing patterns are hypnotic while continuously evolving. We may not get to see hands mushing Hiller's face... but it's still a cool visual representation.
Speaking about the video, Pichardo-Espaillat shared:
"I fell in love with the song since the first time I heard it. I found Creative Tube Bending very whimsical and full of textures, and it was easy to visualize it. To put images into the song. As I was getting to know the band better, I was also understanding the direction the video needed to go. They mention 80’s New wave and everything Devo, therefore I started doing research about that era, the visual identity and their music videos.
Operator Music Band was supportive of my ideas for the video, and they gave me a lot of room to explore them. The first stage was easy, I started with creating the backgrounds and transitions for the entire video. I was trying to understand how these visuals from the 80’s could behave as moving images. For the second stage, I had to create characters to incorporate in all these scenarios. I tried by mixing different animation techniques. It took me a while to balance both the backgrounds and the characters but it felt like a great challenge."
Operator Music Band's Puzzlephonics I & II is out now on New Professor Music.