You know that it must be the end of the year when Pitchfork starts releasing their annual "best of the year" staff lists. After an initial scan, this years "top 100 tracks" seems to follow the familiar formula: that is, a mix of ruthlessly obscure indie tracks cut against a smattering of Beyonce songs, only a few of which will make it through to the monolithic slash epoch-defining "best of the decade" list in eight years time. In any case, this years highly anticipated staff list have given me a fleeting moment of inspiration to stop laxing out in front of my heater in my pajamas, listening to chillwave and eating ice-cream, and actually write something. While I have a million things to say and show about Japan, this brief but nostalgic post is about a different time and a different place.
I'm not entirely sure why or how it happened, but The Campfire Headphase, the third album by Scottish IMD duo Boards of Canada, became the soundtrack to our not so original backpacking adventures around Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand in early 2010. Whilst I still harbour fond memories towards my time spent on the tiny Island of Ko Tao especially, my lucid memories have faded, replaced by the general excess of being twenty something. It is rather fortunate then, that my camera has remembered for me. In these two videos - easily the sweetest things I've stumbled upon while searching through the mass of non-tangible clutter on computer - our blissed out dance moves are inspired by either the laxed out beats of "Peacock Tail" or the (epiphany inducing) "Dayvin Cowboy".
It's difficult to tell if the first video is more ridiculous or hilarious. After five weeks of going to temples together, eating the same diarrhea inducing curries together, and generally cruising around the backpacker trail together, me and my trusty companions formed a relationship that can only be described as a "bromance". All semblance of pretense had been discarded (not including my scarf) as we climbed to the highest point of Ko Tao to admire the sublime views, before descending in the afternoon to the familiar routine of green curries, Chang beers, pool parties and just... general parties - in that order.
Watching this video, it's also impossible to not compare our two dances. Ants' trippy body-pulse definitely outshines my uninventive jump routine. Ants' dance is actually absurdly buzzy, full of random spaced out organic twitches, I was certainly spacing out to it at the time, If you listen carefully you can hear my uncontrollable snickering. It gets well strange at the very end though, when Ants stares into the camera with that intensely awkward look, although it's not as awkward as when I pass him the camera. This video certainly brings up nostalgic feelings, but it also creates a sense of anticipation, because next week I'm going to go through the same whirlwind routine again - excited much? Anyway, that is about the extent to which I can obsess over a single twenty second video, the main thing is just how much fun we are having.
This next video was either shot from a restaurant that evening or the next day, Ants is in fluid form once again, this time without beats though, I guess by this time he was on a completely natural buzz. Andrew too, gets among the spontaneous dancing (David Brent inspired?). Although it wasn't apparent to us at the time, random outbursts of dancing had crept into our day to day lives to the extent that we wouldn't even really talk anymore. Anyhow, I think I stopped the footage just before they started hooking up in the sunset.
I guess I uploaded these videos to share them with Ants and Andrew more than anything else. If I can draw myself away from the heater anytime in the next week I might get down to writing some lists of my own, I'm sure I can manage it at least once.
Peace out.
Tim
PS. If you could jump from space and land on a surfboard, would you do it?
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