This is Video of the Week from Wales Arts Review. We’ll be showcasing some of the best art in Wales with a new video shared every week. From music to drama and everything in between, videos will not be limited by medium. Today’s video is ‘I Told Her on Alderaan / Trick for Treat’ by Neon Neon.
We’re in the eight week of our 100 Greatest Welsh Albums of All Time series and have now seen John Cale, Silent Forum and Man added to the list. For today’s video of the week, we’re taking a look at ‘I Told Her on Alderaan / Trick for Treat ’ by Neon Neon (a collaboration from Gruff Rhys and hip-hop artist Boom Blip), whose concept album features at 26 on our list.
The video for ‘I Told Her on Alderaan / Trick for Treat ’ is full of the 80s playboy party aesthetic which dominated the record.
As part of this week’s countdown, Caragh Medlicott wrote of Neon Neon’s concept album, Stainless Style:
“Introducing John DeLorean. He’s a smooth-talking, 80s yuppie and possibly the world’s first playboy engineer – founder of the DeLorean Motor Company (and hence creator of Doc and Marty’s infamous time machine)… he’s also from the future. No, the John DeLorean caricature conjured here might not really exist. At least not outside of the confines of Gruff Rhys and LA hip-hop darling Boom Bip’s head-spinning concept album, Stainless Style. The term “genre-defying” has been bandied about a lot by music critics for the last twenty years and more, but – truly – Stainless Style takes the biscuit. A wild joy ride which mixes in the sights and smells of fluorescent 80s luxe living, this record is – in the broadest sense – an electro-pop galavant through many real instances of John DeLorean’s partying and philandering. Sonically it soars through shades of hip-hop, disco, Italo-pop and electro. With look-ins from a wide variety of musical greats (from Cate Le Bon to The Strokes), this album is a heady, silly and masterfully crafted dive into a nostalgia-tinged past with an ear to the future. By its final track, you may just feel – as this critic does – that sonic cohesion is, all in all, pretty overrated.”
Watch the video for ‘I Told Her on Alderaan / Trick for Treat’ below, and take a look at albums 30 – 21 of our 100 Greatest Welsh Albums of All Time countdown here.
Stainless Style from Neon Neon is streaming on Spotify now.
