We wouldn't normally wax lyrical about a new video for a Belgian experimental indie pop band, but in the case of BRNS' new video, 'Many Chances', we're prepared to make an exception.
Directed by Brussels-based Flash animator Ni Fong, it's a delightfully surreal and hallucinatory journey in which strange and wonderful life forms are born, grow, mutate and die in a beautifully fluid cycle of life, culminating in a series of gorgeously detailed animated mandalas that cleverly encapsulate most of the preceding action.
If you like the look of Ni's mandalas but didn't get much of a chance to appreciate their intricacy, he's thoughtfully made animated GIFs of them that you can find on his site. It's also a great place to take a look at the rest of his collection of work, which showcases an agreeably weird and varied assortment of styles, from similarly imaginative Flash animation to 120 Songes Carnalistique (roughly translated: 120 Fleshy Visions), an unsettling gallery of meaty illustrations.
We're particularly taken with another amusingly disquieting animation entitled Childhood, in which the taste of a particular food brings back an unpleasant and vivid memory in the main character; a little like Proust's Madeleine, but with a bowl of green gloop instead of a delicious French cake.
Head over to Fong's site to see much more like this; we'll leave you with another music video, this one for Parisian psychedelic rock band Arun Tazieff and appropriately entitled 'Those Visions Have No End', featuring plenty of Fong's bizarre animated creations, all arranged to sync perfectly to the music and maybe freak you out a little bit in places. Sweet dreams!
Words: Jim McCauley
Jim McCauley is a writer, editor and occasional podcaster, and is available for children's parties.
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