The music of Drop The Fear has strong visual characteristics.
\nThe atmospheric nature of the record, and the fluidity with which
\nvarying moods and sounds are meticulously pieced together on a huge
\ncanvas — that is, the album — of strange but interesting
\nimageries almost give away the fact that Drop The Fear is more than
\njust an audio project.<\/p>\n
The limited edition DVD of Drop The Fear’s self-titled debut LP
\ngives the band members a medium to flaunt their skills in visual
\nart and offers a closer look at what the project of Drop The Fear
\nactually is.<\/p>\n
The DVD is divided into three chapters: “A Visual
\nInterpretation,” “Questioning Fear,” and “Behind It All.”<\/p>\n
“A Visual Interpretation,” is literally a visual accompaniment
\nto the music of the album, song by song, although whether — as the
\nband claims — these visual images are indeed interpretations of
\nthe music going on in the background is questionable.<\/p>\n
The images are basically everyday stuff captured on a video
\ncamera, with graphics and other sorts of manipulating agents added
\nto it for effect. Most are shots of random objects, like a lone
\nwireless antenna-tower, a drunken man, a plane taking off or the
\nbrightly shining sun, random things that one might capture while
\ndriving on the road, of things moving in the opposite
\ndirection.<\/p>\n
The photography, though amateurish, is great, and along with the
\ncrazy add-on graphics and almost audacious use of colors, gives a
\npsychedelic visual form to the rather estranged — and strangely
\nemotional — music. But, here is where it all starts to hurt.<\/p>\n
The camera-work, however adept, makes the whole visual trip
\nthrough the record seem like watching a home movie for two reasons.
\nThough there are glimpses of a Michel Gondry video seen in plenty
\nof the shots, they still lack the professional edge, because of the
\ncamera used that was strictly meant for shooting home-movies. There
\nis no drastic difference in the visuals from one song to another,
\nand the strong identities of the songs and the uniqueness of each
\none of them are undermined by the same kind of imageries repeated
\nfrom song to song. As a result, there really seems to be no
\nspecific interpretation for each song, which does not do justice to
\nthe sense of individualism that each number carries with
\nitself.<\/p>\n
The second chapter, called “Questioning Fear,” is an interview
\nof the band-members on their interpretations of fear. Also, it has
\nvarious interviews — conducted by the band itself — of arbitrary
\nstrangers (encountered on the band’s road-trip) on their
\ninterpretation of what fear is. Excerpts from these interviews can
\nbe found on the record as sound-bytes on various cuts. The
\ninterview sessions (with the band and by the band) yield Pink
\nFloyd-ish quotes like “Change is difficult, scary and
\nuncomfortable,” and gives food for thought — that is, if you are
\ninto the concept of fear and the philosophies associated with
\nit.<\/p>\n
The third chapter, “Behind It All,” makes absolutely no sense at
\nall, since it indeed is a home movie by the band members, catching
\nthem doing things that are not particularly interesting. It
\nwouldn’t have mattered at all if this chapter were left out of the
\nrest of the DVD.<\/p>\n
Drop The Fear is an immensely talented band, and this
\nexperimental visual project is an accompaniment to one of the
\ngreatest — and most creative — albums in recent times. The genius
\nof the music demands a more thoughtful visual manifestation, and
\nthough the movie is stimulating, it is just not enough for the
\nsoundtrack. It so happens that the band-members are smarter
\nmusicians than they are cinematographers.<\/p>\n