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  Directed by
    None Listed
  Starring
  Specs
  • Full Frame
  • Dual Layer (RSDL )
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • English: DTS 5.1 Surround
  • English: Dolby Digital Stereo
  Subtitles
    English, Japanese, Welsh
  Extras
  • Cast/crew biographies
  • Photo gallery
  • Animated menus
  • 6 Music video
  • Booklet
  • Storyboards
  • Multiple angle
  • Web access
  • Outtakes

Super Furry Animals - Rings Around the World

Sony Music Video/Sony BMG . R4 . COLOR . 53 mins . M15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

For the uninitiated, Super Furry Animals are a Welsh band that tends to get lumped into the 'alternative' and 'independent' pigeonholes when it comes to classifying their music. Much like others from their country, such as Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics, Catatonia and Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, they are fiercely proud of their heritage, and the album they released before Rings Around the World, entitled Mwng, was even performed wholly in their native language. Sadly success has been pretty much elusive for the band in Australia, although Triple J listeners may fondly recall a little ditty called The Man Don’t Give A Fuck which received quite some airplay a few years back - as indeed it seems any song featuring a naughty word does from that station (aspiring bands, take the hint...). My, aren’t they subversive little things?

Anyway, the music of Super Furry Animals isn’t the easiest to classify. There are definite roots in the more harmonic output of '60s bands such as The Beatles and even at times the Beach Boys, but then they throw caution to the wind and drop into early disco styles or even thrash rock. Whilst this can be quite befuddling for those who prefer music to be as pasteurised as possible, they have a large and quite obsessive fan base who appreciate this quirkiness, whilst also savouring their often brilliant pop sensibilities. Add to this a deft sense of humour (we are talking about a band who had a bloody great army tank painted blue to accompany them to festival appearances a couple of years back) and there really is something on offer here for anybody who is prepared to open up his or her ears just a little.

Rings Around the World is the Furries' fifth long player, and in what was apparently a first this DVD was released on the same day as the album - well, in the UK at least. Finally it has hit our shores, and fans of the band will find it definitely worth the almost three month wait. All the standard album tracks are included with visual accompaniment from many student and other up and coming filmmakers, plus there are all sorts of extra tracks and an entire album's worth of exclusive remixes - and all for only a few bucks more than the CD version. Alternatively all the main clips have an optional angle that shows a sort of oscilloscope-type thingy flickering away. This hardly makes for riveting viewing, however it may just be manna for some of the more techy-types out there. Anyway, here's what the main programme has to offer…

Alternate Route to Vulcan Street: All manner of landscapes combining computer graphics and live footage.

Sidewalk Serfer Girl: A girl awakes from a coma and...

(Drawing) Rings Around the World: An ode to Star Wars (and perhaps even Sigue Sigue Sputnik?). This is the recently released second single from the album.

It's Not the End of the World: An explosive presentation, featuring recently unclassified military archival footage of nuclear testing.

Receptacle for the Respectable: Evil visits Happyland in this cutesy bubblegum-hued cartoon. Paul McCartney guests playing celery...

(A) Touch Sensitive: A Dr Who inspired CG fest.

Shoot Doris Day: We go upmarket with 35mm footage shot in India.

Miniature: A blurry and brief affair that apparently has something to do with dolphins.

No Sympathy: Kids, Jesus and some weekend warriors play in the snow...

Juxtapozed With U: The album's first single, and an incredibly cute vid featuring a bunch of oversized film props trying to find their place in the world.

Presidential Suite: A rather Terry Gilliam-esque animation starring a cartoon jumbo jet. John Cale tinkles the ivories...

Run! Christian, Run!: A collection of snippets of Christian history for us all to think about...

Fragile Happiness: Computer generated icebergs float about a black sea.

  Video
Contract

Luckily this is a music release, as that is more the reason why you'd purchase it rather than for a visual fest. Whilst the video quality here most certainly isn’t shocking, the various methods used do often introduce inevitable bugbears into the system. Many of the otherwise sharp computer graphics suffer from severe jaggies, blurring and occasional colour bleeding, whilst the use at times of found footage, often with the living daylights processed out of it, gives us often indistinct or speckle-infested vision. It would be churlish of me to assume that much of this isn’t intentional however, as of course, this is art!

It's all in a ratio of 1.33:1, with no anamorphic enhancement. Aspects do vary between a few clips though, with some popping up at around 1.78:1 and some going for the full Panavision effect at around 2.35:1. The layer change isn’t noticeable, so cheers to whoever assembled this disc for using some cleverness.

  Audio
Contract

This is where the action is. Three soundtracks are included, a CD-like Dolby Stereo version, a 5.1 Surround mix and a monster DTS Surround one too. And to say that the six channels are utilised with the latter two mixes would be quite the understatement - it would appear that a lot of care went into the mixing of this DVD presentation. Whilst on the subject of sound options though, you may wish to get in and out of the selection screen as quickly as possible, as some almost ear-bleed inducing test tones play away merrily whilst awaiting your choice.

Where were we? Ah yes, channel separation. Vocals are generally, and logically, usually front and centre, with the other speakers used to fling effects all about you in most tracks, often to wonderful effect. Who needs a merry-go-round when you have a DTS set up? Whilst it's sometimes difficult to discern great differences between 5.1 and DTS mixes, as generally those of the latter variety always sound distinctly louder, things do appear to have an extra crispness to them here, but frankly it's really a matter of splitting hairs.

Lyrics are quite clear for a modern 'indie' release, and to be honest there's not much to say for lip synching when the band are pretty much nowhere to be seen throughout this entire visual cache of their latest work.

  Extras
Contract

A rather full-on animated intro, complete with some bass thrums that veer dangerously close to replicating Cartman's infamous brown note at times, leads to this disc's menu system. It's all reasonably intuitive, and hey, it must be good, as it's recently been given a nomination for the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Award for best interface design. Each sub-section has its own little animated bits, and different sonic accompaniment.

Honorarium - More films: There are six of these bonus tracks complete with clips...

Roman Road: Robots race around Mario Kart style in this CG fest.

Trade Winds: Wrestlers go video game in this accompaniment to the b-side of Juxtaposed.

Happiness is a Worn Pun: A grainy montage. Nice title though.

Patience: Jigsaw fun for all.

All the Shit You Do: A magical clip for this (Drawing) b-side.

Fragile Happiness (versions): Select from seven different angles to witness various versions of this iceberg-infested clip, ranging from wire frame to fully rendered.

Honorarium - Remixes: Sixteen remixes of album tracks from all manner of music doodlers, all exclusive to this DVD release and each accompanied by static screens.

Photo gallery: Seventeen shots of the band and the like, in all fairly rudimentary stuff.

Deep Space Animations - Epic intro: Want to see the fabulous computer generated disc intro again, and giver those speakers another pounding? Here's your ticket.

Deep Space Animations - Storyboards: A series of rough sketches for what ended up as decidedly not-rough computer graphics flash up and disappear all over the screen.

Deep Space Animations - Tests: Sixteen little windows featuring all manner of swirly graphics.

Web links: Simply the addresses for the two official-type Super Furry Animals websites.

Song facts: Information on the directors of each clip, plus web links to their work where applicable.

Disc info: Umm, there's a small animation with a countdown timer and then the disc stops. Whatever.

Credits: A standard track listing, band information and recording details, in Welsh and English.

8-page foldout booklet: Featuring credits and the lyrics to all the main album songs in a font the size of which would even have Superman squinting.

  Overall  
Contract

Many fans will likely be in shock that this has been released locally, so kudos to Sony for getting off the Celine bandwagon just long enough to satisfy a more discerning audience.

Disc-wise this continues in the vein of Orbital's recent The Altogether, with the UK seemingly mowing down boundaries in the creation of truly innovative music presentations on DVD more than anybody else in the world.

Musically there is exceptional value on offer, with an entire album of songs AND a further one of exclusive remixes, plus half a dozen or so bonus tracks on top of that. The quality of the actual promos does vary; some are fascinating whilst some make watching paint dry a viable form of alternative entertainment, however this disc screams value simply for the incredible audio mixes on offer - who really needs to watch it? Just crank it up and get on with your business, your neighbours will love you forever...


  • LINK: http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=1012
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      And I quote...
    "Another brilliantly assembled music DVD from the UK, there really is something on offer here for anybody who is prepared to open up his or her ears just a little..."
    - Amy Flower
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-535
    • TV:
          Sony 68cm
    • Receiver:
          Onkyo TX-DS494
    • Speakers:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse RBS662
    • Centre Speaker:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECC442
    • Surrounds:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECR042
    • Subwoofer:
          DTX Digital 4.8
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard RCA
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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