Pitchfork

We've seen a lot of this sort of thing over the past few months, building a music video by combining footage from an existing film with unrelated sound. If the pictures are good, and the music is complementary, they can turn out pretty sweet. Case in point is this one by Antiguo Autómata Mexicano, aka producer Angel Sánchez Borges. The web is full of strange video pieces by Borges, many of which combine crude captures of the latest streaming media technologies (Second Life scenes, random YouTubes, bits from Google Earth) to surreal effect. But this simple construction is much easier to appreciate.

The audio, a bass-driven and static-laden number that builds from tense opening drones to glitchy beats, was recorded in WFMU's studio earlier this month. Borges pairs the ghostly groove with found clips from two films by Luis Buñuel-- 1965's Simón del desierto and 1950's Los Olvidados. The moment when the grinding rhythm kicks in to play along to slow-motion footage of a nightclub scene is breathtaking-- the mental dissonance created by the images of clean-cut kids in ties and poodle skirts moving to stark, cold electronics from years in the future-- and blurry, dream-like shots of a man in the desert being tormented by a circle of children are no less striking.

 

[Kraut Slut is out now on Static Discos]