Idles share Michel Gondry-directed animated video for 'Model Village'
Idles have shared another track from their forthcoming third album ‘Ultra Mono’ – check out the video for ‘Model Village’ below.
The follow-up to 2018’s acclaimed ‘Joy As An Act Of Resistance’ is set to arrive on September 25 via Partisan, and has so far been previewed with ‘Mr. Motivator’, ‘Grounds’ and ‘A Hymn’.
Tonight (August 11), the Bristol punks have offered up another taste of the record alongside an animated video from Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry (who’s previously helmed visuals for the likes of Daft Punk, Radiohead and The White Stripes) and Olivier Gondry.
Speaking on the meaning of the song, Idles’ frontman Joe Talbot said: “I hated growing up in a city that was really a town that was really a fishbowl. I left as soon as I could, only to realise the fishbowl didn’t exist…just the fish, and they’re everywhere.”
Crafted over a number of weeks under lockdown, the ‘Model Village’ video is made up of hand-drawn paper shapes that were filmed by Michel atop various lightboxes in his Los Angeles studio. The individual images were then sent to Oliver in Paris, where they were animated through the magic of CGI.
“Basically, in the first part we try to illustrate the lyrics as close as possible, to create the world, and then in the second half…they go to the moon,” Michel said of the clip.
Last month, Talbot described ‘Ultra Mono’ as being “vigorously Idles”. “It’s fluent in Idles language because we’ve just been able to take baby steps every moment, make mistakes, and no one’s fucking at our gigs so we can make mistakes and come back stronger,” he explained.
“Rather than like, ‘Ah that was a shit gig, no one’s going to come and watch us again because everyone in London that mattered came to that one that we were terrible at.’ Do you know what I mean?”
Recorded in Paris, Idles’ third record was produced by Nick Launay (Nick Cave, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arcade Fire) and Adam ‘Atom’ Greenspan (Anna Calvi, Cut Copy). Additional programming was provided by Kenny Beats, with Idles setting out to capture the feeling of a hip-hop record.
Savages‘ frontwoman Jehnny Beth will feature as a guest on the track ‘Ne Touche Pas Moi’, while Warren Ellis, David Yow and Jamie Cullum also contributed to the project.
