Something that I’ve had the joy of witnessing being a father is the love of music my daughter has at such a young age. Not even eleven months old yet, she’ll stop whatever she’s doing and dance if the right song comes on. A new addition to this has sprouted in recent weeks: she looks for a visual aspect. Whether it’s the album art for The B-52’s Cosmic Thing, or the intro sequence to Grace and Frankie, she grasps onto it and enjoys the experience in a new and complete way. That’s something that The Anix’s Black Space needed for me to understand it.

I couldn’t tell you the number of times I listened to Shadow_Movement in preparation of the review, but I know that this song never really did it for me. Nothing stood out as catchy, and I didn’t even recognize the song by name recently. My daughter was sleeping when I first watched the video, so I watched it without the audio or remembering what the song sounded like. The visual spectacle was fine, but when I had the chance to watch it with sound, I understood it. The song made sense, the video was elevated, and it made me want to see the rest of the album visualized.

I’m not saying this is the greatest music video you’ll ever watch. I feel the medium has died off, although I still appreciate the accompaniment when offered. But many people that own the album will never see this video, and I find that to be a bit sad. Whether the vision is that of the musician or another artist entirely, as is the case here, seeing a visual interpretation of something abstract changes the way you engage with it. A song I could skip without any issue now holds a firmer grasp on my ears. I implore you to give it a look, especially if you dig the album. Below is a quote from Ruslan, the creator of the video.

“Typical shooting process of music videos is not really my thing. I like to improvise a lot and try new methods of shooting. Brandon gives me full creative freedom and is open to visual ideas. So I got an idea of what I wanted to shoot, took my camera and spent a few nights walking around the city, under the rain. I never use any additional equipment, all my videos are shot from my hands only with a small camera. I wanted to find an industrial NYC location that isn’t very well known. My visual inspiration was Blade Runner, the 1982 original; it’s funny though that actual movie location is LA, not NYC. I really like the lifeless concrete and glass buildings and feel comfortable around them. I actually live in an industrial area like this, and a few shots in the video were made from my apartment window.”  – Ruslan Pelykh 

Shadow_Movement was created by The Anix under the FiXT label. It was released October 19th, 2018. If you’d like to see more of The Anix, check out his official site.