With woozy Moloko figurehead, Roisin Murphy rumoured to be considering life as a solo artist the release of the ‘11,000 Clicks’ DVD seems an alternately joyous and moving affair to say the least. Filmed at last year’s final U.K. show of 2003 at The Brixton Academy and directed by broad angle camera wiz, Dick Carruthers (also responsible for Oasis’s ‘Familiar To Millions’ and ‘There and Then ‘ releases plus James’s ‘Getting Away with It…Live’) the film takes us through a robust and able set-list of mature club classics like ‘Absent Minded Friend’, ‘Pure Pleasure Seekers’, ‘The Time Is Now’ and ‘Sing It Back’ and lesser known beauties like ‘Familiar Feeling’ and ‘I Want You’ – reiterating rather than dispelling the curious straddling of genres the band presented in their brief but tumultuous career – and laying bare their wildly eccentric fissures: club sweethearts or indie darlings? Like Portishead and Lamb – nobody was really sure. It was, however, a tension that was to ultimately compromise Moloko’s appeal to the masses.
Internal contradictions aside though, ‘11,000 Clicks’ illustrates just what tasty a proposition Moloko were as a live and ‘organic’ dance act. They may not have been as swaggeringly theatrical or as pyrotechnic as Basement Jaxx but Murphy’s muscular vocal punch more than makes up for it and ‘11,000 Clicks’ is a worthy testament to the sheer and often surprising consistency of her vocal talents – which for the most part have been overshadowed by her club-diva role-play and her reputation as a formidable boozer.
The dts and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround audio is superb and the 16:9 Widescreen Anamorphic format provides the ideal window through which to view Dick Carruthers’ astonishingly free-moving and intimate camera work. Coupled with a fairly amusing and entertaining look at life on the road with the band and some titillating shots of Roisin striding around in fishnets and high-heels as well as teasing a baying crowd, ‘11,000 Clicks’ is a slick and erotic reminder of the band at their most elusive and schizophrenic best.
Extras:
Ed’s Film: Roadies, ligers, chicks, that digus, riggers, truckers, punters, bouncers, blaggers, boozers… Dancing Prawns, opera singers, yodellers; all in the average ‘Day in the life of a Rock Musician’ as is documented by Moloko’s Eddie Stevens in this, the warts and all, glimpse of life on tour.
Hidden Transitions: Footage shot by the band, of the band on tour, backstage and on location.
Tracklisting
Familiar Feeling
I Want You
Absent Minded Friend
Day For Night
Come On / Fun For Me
Where Is The What If The What Is In Why?
Cannot Contain This
Pure Pleasure Seekers
The Time Is Now
Statues
100%
Forever More
Sing It Back
Encore
Being Is Bewildering
Blow By Blow
Indigo