The Chemical Brothers exploded with Star Guitar in 2002, resulting in one of my favorite music videos of all time. Ever. Of all time. It’s easily one of the most hypnotic, addictive, and straight up cool videos anyone will ever see.
And it’s got a delicious aura of “how the fuck did they do that?” – since the clip’s nearly a decade old. The simplest explanation is to note the genius who conceived it: Michel Gondry.
Yes, the man behind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, one of the best films of this century so far, and The Science of Sleep (La science des rêves to the hip and the French), a personal favorite of mine for reasons yet to remain mysterious.
I know the clip isn’t viewable here, but that’s a good thing. Click, go to the youtube page, and watch it in HQ to get the full experience. You’ll emerge a changed person. Or at least smiling.
[this song is available on the album Come With Us, as well as the excellent 2cd Brotherhood compilation]
Optimistic Underground 
AMEN brother dave
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ha. what a coincidence. Just yesterday i watched a bunch of Gondry music videos. The wiki page for this song explains vaguely how he made the video. He filmed a train ride ten different times at different times of the day. Then I guess he cut and pasted everything to make it look like how it does. Really cool stuff.
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Yeah, there’s actually a making of video that’s related to the one here, on youtube. Everybody should check it out.
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one of my favorites.
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You best have that Gondry DVD set. So many great vids!
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I honestly don’t, and I’m a lesser man for it. I should have scooped up all 3 of the original Director’s Series when they were new… hope I can still snag them online somewhere. Truly groundbreaking stuff from him, Jonze, and Cunningham..
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I think I have 6 of them… all great!
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Early Chem Bros is dope, and under appreciated because they became so uncool. Partly their fault for releasing a few shit albums and repeatdly asking Tim Burgess to make worse and worse contributions to their albums! But anyway, the video is ace. But my favourite music vid of all time is still ‘Slave To The Rhythm’ by Grace Jones. Totally mental.
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Slave to the Rhythm is indeed amazing…
I may just have to post that here. Hopefully there’s an uncut copy floating around the web.
And seriously, it’s sad they became so uncool because some of their early stuff was the gateway drug that got me into electronic music in the first place. Sure I’d heard other sounds and artists, but these guys and their BIG BEATS just commanded attention!
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