This Friday saw the return of Adam Buxton’s BUG to the BFI, complete with a brand-new array of music video excellence.
Hosted by actor, comedian, podcaster, and writer Adam Buxton, along with the help of the BUG team, BUG 64 (the 64th edition of the long-running show) seeks out the latest in music video innovation presenting the past month’s videos in a hilarious 90-minute roundup.
Friday’s episode saw music videos from the likes of alt-J, Radiohead, and David Bowie, as well as more recently emerging artists like self-produced duo, Sad Night Dynamite, Mexican-American Rapper, Cuco, and New York indie rockers, Pretty Sick (to name a few).
The videos themselves spanned from chaotic and violent absurdity like that of math-rock band black midi’s ‘Sugar/Tzu’ video, to the moving narrative of night out gone wrong for indie rock icon, Ezra Furman’s, ‘Forever In Sunset’, both created by American director Noel Paul.
Other featured directors included LA-based director Dan Streit, with his skater-aesthetic inspired video for Tik-Tok famous Joji’s, ‘Glimpse of Us’. Montreal-born animator Cole Kush, who previously made his BUG debut with his unsettling animation for Mac Demarco’s ‘Here Comes the Cowboy’, featured with his equally trippy and hugely popular video for Cuco’s ‘Caution’. Saskia Dixie directed ‘The Actor’ for alt-J, an intensely moving dance piece showing a desperate morning after the night before scene reflecting on themes of addiction, and we saw the work of director C Prinz reclaiming female nudity in a violent and controversial video for American rapper Doechii’s track ‘Crazy’.
For comedic relief and in true BUG style, we were also treated to the music video for Buxton’s long-time friend and journalist, Louis Theroux’s,‘Jiggle Jiggle’, which, as Adam rightfully despairs, now has an official music video and fully produced track featuring Jason Derulo, Duke & Jones and Amelia Dimz.
Buxton’s presentations are thought-provoking by default with each video taking his audience to the weird, the wonderful, the psychedelic, the controversial, and the absurd corners of human expression, all the while interspersed with a mix of Buxton’s career-informed musical commentary and ridiculous comedic interludes (the YouTube comment section often making a welcome appearance). Buxton and his team scour the best in visual art, music, and internet absurdities so you don’t have to, all to be enjoyed with the audio-visual quality of the BFI big screen. BUG is truly a bang for your buck show.
You can keep an eye out for BUG 65 here.
Words by Ray Bonsall
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