Autechre - Second Bad Vilbel

MAR 16 1996 · 12:00

Autechre - Second Bad Vilbel (1996) Director: Chris Cunningham Era: Mid-90s IDM/Experimental Electronic (1995–1996) - Peak Warp Records era; British intelligent dance music intersecting with emerging digital art video practice and industrial body-horror aesthetics. Exceptionally high. This is the directorial debut of one of the most important music video directors of the 20th century, made for one of the most critically significant electronic music acts of the 1990s, on the most prestigious experimental electronic label of its era. A primary document for the study of IDM visual culture, 1990s Warp Records aesthetics, and Chris Cunningham's artistic development. Its inclusion in both WarpVision and The Work of Director Chris Cunningham confirms its canonical status across both musical and cinematic preservation traditions. Context: Released in April 1996 as a promotional video for Autechre's Anvil Vapre EP (Warp Records, 1995), this video emerged at the height of UK IDM's cultural prestige, when Warp Records was repositioning experimental electronic music as a legitimate art form. Cunningham's debut as director, made concurrently with his work consulting for Stanley Kubrick, represents a collision between industrial body-horror visual traditions, early-digital film production, and the anti-commercial aesthetic values of the Warp artist roster. The video prefigures the body-anxiety and machine-flesh iconography that would define Cunningham's subsequent landmark collaborations. Director notes: Second Bad Vilbel (1996) was Chris Cunningham's first directed music video, made while he was simultaneously consulting with Stanley Kubrick on A.I. The video was created as a promotional piece for Autechre's track from the Anvil Vapre EP (Warp Records, October 1995). A re-edited version was included on Warp Records' 2004 DVD compilation WarpVision and on the Gantz Graf DVD EP. The video was also included in The Work of Director Chris Cunningham (2003), the Directors Label DVD retrospective. Cunningham has described it as an experiment in anatomy and figurative drawing, intended to be completely abstract.