aphex twin / chris cunningham: rubber johnny

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http://z.wimp.com/a/rubberjohnny.swf

makes me want to drag out DRUKQS.

this is 5'08" ... i heard the movie was 6'01". is this video truncated or something?

― vahid (vahid), Saturday, 23 July 2005 01:38 (twenty years ago)

Yeah this is pretty amazing.

― That One Guy, Saturday, 23 July 2005 01:55 (twenty years ago)

saw this at my friend's house. creepy!

― latebloomer: lazy r people (latebloomer), Saturday, 23 July 2005 02:07 (twenty years ago)

i'm lovin it

― ?ÎÓDDDJHKHVBNM (eman), Saturday, 23 July 2005 14:40 (twenty years ago)

Holy Wowzers.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Saturday, 23 July 2005 15:02 (twenty years ago)

best dialogue ever:

"now how are you feeling?"
"daaahnnanananabpbpbpbpbpbpb!!!!!!!"

― ?ÎÓDDDJHKHVBNM (eman), Saturday, 23 July 2005 15:17 (twenty years ago)

Really. Fucking. Creepy.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 23 July 2005 15:51 (twenty years ago)

does this mean that the rubber johnny 12" on warp was actually r. james?

― Beta (abeta), Saturday, 23 July 2005 16:30 (twenty years ago)

rubber johnny 12" is chris cunningham's remix of afx237v7 from drukqs

― vahid (vahid), Saturday, 23 July 2005 17:10 (twenty years ago)

The parts where he isn't wheelchair raving are good.

― smetric, Saturday, 23 July 2005 17:12 (twenty years ago)

xpost it's more like an edit than a remix, really.

― vahid (vahid), Saturday, 23 July 2005 17:12 (twenty years ago)

so what you're telling me is that the four-track rj single is a remix of a song that came out four years later on drukqs?

― Beta (abeta), Saturday, 23 July 2005 17:14 (twenty years ago)

yeah, i'm not sure how the two parts relate. the pitch i heard for the video was this:

Rubber Johnny documents a 16-year-old, inbred mutant's solitary existence, locked in a pitch-black basement by his ashamed parents. They are TV addict rednecks who occasionally feed Johnny and yell at him for making noise. Johnny's only company in the basement is his little dog. His dog's I.Q. far outstrips Johnny's, who is a completely insane, bi-polar imbecile.

which doesn't mention the wheelchair raving at all. i think the wheelchair raving is silly enough that it completely undoes the unnerving mood of the beginning. BUT WHATEVER, i still like the laser beams.

― vahid (vahid), Saturday, 23 July 2005 17:17 (twenty years ago)

xpost - whoops you're right, i didn't realize what you were talking about. i have no idea who did the rubber johnny 12". i thought you were talking about the track in the video.

"dickie's magic poppers" sure sounds like aphex twin!

― vahid (vahid), Saturday, 23 July 2005 17:23 (twenty years ago)

vahid, Beta is referring to the "Jamrolypoly" ep on the Warp label from awhile back by someone named Rubber Johnny aka J.P. Buckle (Rephlex) aka Jason Buckle. 'rubber johnny' is a common brit term for 'condom'

― ?ÎÓDDDJHKHVBNM (eman), Saturday, 23 July 2005 17:28 (twenty years ago)

The Rubber Johnny 12" is by JP Buckle of the Fat Truckers/All Seeing I/Relaxed Muscle. No relation as far as I can tell, it's just slang for condom isn't it?

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Saturday, 23 July 2005 17:30 (twenty years ago)

Huh, dunno how that went through on first try...xpost, obviously

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Saturday, 23 July 2005 17:30 (twenty years ago)

*echo*

― ?ÎÓDDDJHKHVBNM (eman), Saturday, 23 July 2005 17:31 (twenty years ago)

It's a nice piece of work (esp. before it becomes a MUSIC! VIDEO!), but come on Chris - that was two years of work?!?

― Brian Miller (Brian Miller), Saturday, 23 July 2005 17:42 (twenty years ago)

http://www.warprecords.com/pack221/WF003DVD/

― ?ÎÓDDDJHKHVBNM (eman), Saturday, 23 July 2005 22:11 (twenty years ago)

what is this whole "two years" thing everyone is trumpeting? maybe he was doing other things at the same time, maybe this, maybe that. geez, so jaded.

― ?ÎÓDDDJHKHVBNM (eman), Saturday, 23 July 2005 22:17 (twenty years ago)

maybe the next thing!

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 23 July 2005 22:23 (twenty years ago)

From his info at Director File:

"(Spectral Musicians) was commissioned in August 2001 at the dawn of Warp Films. Since then the proposed release date has been continuously pushed back"

"Monkey Drummer is a 2.5 minute piece commissioned again by the Anthony d'Offay Gallery. It was meant to be a companion piece to flex, but wasn't finished in time for the September 2000 exhibition."

"A move into features is his next step, though he's been saying that for a while: planned adaptations of William Gibson's 'Neuromancer', Italian punk comic 'RanXerox' and Philip K Dick's 'A Scanner Darkly' (now filmed by Richard Linklater) came to nothing after Cunningham's enthusiasm waned despite substantial preparatory work. 'It's just embarrassing,' he admits. 'All I ever do is talk about films and then not make them."

I'm sure he's been working on other things - he seems to be proceeding with his own feature film. But I wouldn't bet on seeing it before 2012 or so.

― Brian Miller (Brian Miller), Saturday, 23 July 2005 22:50 (twenty years ago)

what's "Spectral Musicians" ?

― ?ÎÓDDDJHKHVBNM (eman), Saturday, 23 July 2005 22:55 (twenty years ago)

Another short film, supposedly a Squarepusher collaboration.

― Brian Miller (Brian Miller), Saturday, 23 July 2005 22:56 (twenty years ago)

maybe deep down he feels he can't sustain this kind of creepy awesomeness for a whole 2 hours and 30?

― richardk (Richard K), Saturday, 23 July 2005 23:31 (twenty years ago)

I'm glad I didn't shell out cash for THAT! Rubber Johnny = Crazy Frog only shit.

His Directors Series DVD was by far the worst of the initial three as well (only good videos = the two Aphex and the Bjork.)

― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Sunday, 24 July 2005 00:15 (twenty years ago)

i wouldn't mind looking at the book that comes with the dvd. that cover photo is bugging me out

― ?ÎÓDDDJHKHVBNM (eman), Sunday, 24 July 2005 00:53 (twenty years ago)

his head morphs into a butt...a fuckin' BUTT, man!

― kevin says relax (daddy warbuxx), Sunday, 24 July 2005 04:51 (twenty years ago)

i think there's more to it than that though. for instance, testicles.

― ?ÎÓDDDJHKHVBNM (eman), Sunday, 24 July 2005 05:02 (twenty years ago)

omg, you're right.

― kevin says relax (daddy warbuxx), Sunday, 24 July 2005 05:10 (twenty years ago)

OK, I finally saw this at the record store I was at before coming home..(it's funny how even something like this won't phase people in a record store.. sometimes, I like the world.)

This HAS to be Cunningham's homage to Jan Svankmajer. So many motifs in common: a poorly lit basement, unstable lighting, a rodent, the domestic pet, incidental creeping sounds amplified, lots of real fleshy stuff thrown at you at a high frequency, the pacing, the spastic stop motion effects...

I'm glad I didn't buy this for $10... but I'll happily get this once it appears on a DVD collection of other good videos in the future. (instead I picked up the Rick James video DVD and The Ex In Beautiful Frenzy DVD)

― donut ferry (donut), Friday, 29 July 2005 06:52 (twenty years ago)

boy oh boy do i hate WARP/ richard d james/ chris c/ etc.

i think Affectian of this very parish said it best when he said
'it's music for boys who want their music to sound like computer games'.

i get annoyed just thinking about them.

and now they're making *movies*...

― piscesboy, Friday, 29 July 2005 10:03 (twenty years ago)

I found that video a bit sick, I turned it off after 30 seconds. too early in the morning.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 29 July 2005 10:05 (twenty years ago)

'it's music for boys who want their music to sound like computer games'.

And just what is wrong with that exactly?

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 29 July 2005 14:19 (twenty years ago)

yeah, one shouldn't initially watch this video after waking up in the morning.. I'll definitely say that.

― donut ferry (donut), Friday, 29 July 2005 14:38 (twenty years ago)

This thread made me remember just how awesome Monkey Drummer was. I think i'll go break that out

― lemin (lemin), Friday, 29 July 2005 14:45 (twenty years ago)

(instead I picked up the Rick James video DVD

This Rick James or the other?

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Friday, 29 July 2005 14:48 (twenty years ago)

The parts where his face is smeared against the glass but his tongue is still wagging are SOME FUQUED UP SHIT.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Friday, 29 July 2005 14:57 (twenty years ago)

i find it strange that anyone finds this that disturbing. i just can't figure out why. i was really disappointed with it. i found out about it just when i needed one more thing from chris cunningham to solidify his solid golden place in my mind (about 2 years or so ago), and finally bought it when i needed one more thing from chris cunningham to save me from giving up on him.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Friday, 29 July 2005 15:44 (twenty years ago)

I haven't seen "Come To Daddy" still (because, believe it or not, I'm a scaredy cat), but I was initially frightened of what "Rubber Johnny" would be and, while it's definitely weird and swarthy (minus the wheelchair parts), I'm not having nightmares about it at all. Maybe because it's too surreal to be scary or disturbing... (and I mean that definitively -- Svankmajer comparisons still stand.) I have seen "Windowlicker", and -- except one part just the first time viewing for a split second -- that one isn't scary or disturbing at all.

― donut ferry (donut), Friday, 29 July 2005 16:08 (twenty years ago)

If you made it through "Rubber Johnny", you have nothing to fear from "Come To Daddy".

― Deric W. Haircare (Deric W. Haircare), Monday, 1 August 2005 22:23 (twenty years ago)

i've sorta liked his other video's but Rubber Johnny seemed just stupid. i think it was made to creep out 13 year old boys. it also made me uncomfortable for all the real misshapen people in wheelchairs.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 1 August 2005 22:42 (twenty years ago)

i dont think the video was made to creep out anyone, its just funny

― fe zaffe (fezaffe), Monday, 1 August 2005 23:07 (twenty years ago)

desde Argentina.. Aphex Twin+Cunningham forman un duo increible.
El film Rubber Johnny es INCREIBLE. La musica de Aphex Twin, es superior.
saludos!
---
from Argentina.... Aphex Twin & Cunningham are an incredible pair. The film Rubber Johnny is INCREDIBLE. The music of Aphex Twin, is superior greetings!

― alvaro, Wednesday, 10 August 2005 23:59 (twenty years ago)

A friend sent this to me a few weeks ago (she had no knowledge of what it is) and when I saw the opening I was like eeeeeeeeew! aaaaaaaaagh! and then I told her it was great and freakydeeky until they went into the bullshit cheezy aphex twin ripoff music. Then I found out it was really Aphex twin. My opinion still stands, I think.

― The Original Jimmy Mod: A Negro (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Thursday, 11 August 2005 00:10 (twenty years ago)

1¡¡¡¡saludos alvaro!!!!1

― amon (eman), Thursday, 11 August 2005 03:07 (twenty years ago)

eleven months pass...

His newest video: The Horrors - Sheena Is A Parasite

http://www.boardsmag.com/screeningroom/musicvideos/3076/

― StanM (StanM), Saturday, 22 July 2006 00:21 (nineteen years ago)

that was cool.

― Christopher Costello (CGC), Saturday, 22 July 2006 02:08 (nineteen years ago)

Starring Miss Samantha Morton and Her Amazing Performing Bowel!

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Saturday, 22 July 2006 04:39 (nineteen years ago)

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