What starts with the bold lettering, orange-y filters and crisp style of a Levi’s ad soon gets very weird in Athenian art-pop singer Sillyboy’s latest video, directed by Stathis Mourdoukoutas. Despite the large scale of its name, “Coast to Coast” really focuses in on one girl’s body – in a very non-sexual, object-like way. Concentrating on her back, her hair, her un-moving stare, Stathis’ video paints a both visceral and inhuman picture of a person slipping, stumbling, and drowning in an un-emotive state that reads one part detachment and one part depression. But even though you can’t help but assign some kind of emotion to the video’s central character, the whole series of events is just as much about space, texture, and the body as a statue – it could almost be silent.
Applied to such a captivating series of images, Sillyboy’s song is relegated to soundtrack status. Still, the crashing and circular rhythm sets the perfect pace for the moody, liquid video, driving each cut from scene to scene and adding a sense of motion that keeps everything seamless. Less a music video than a video with music, “Coast to Coast” is like an out-of-body experience – one that makes you want to pinch yourself to make sure you’re not made of stone.
Sillyboy's Nature Of Things is out now on Just Gazing Records.
