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The brilliant martial arts style video for "Get Yourself High", the new Chemical Brothers single, was directed by Joseph Kahn, as previously mentioned in Planet Dust intelligence. The video's effects and animation was provided by an American company called KromA. The video is composed entirely of footage gleaned from the 1978 Chinese martial arts film Shaolin yu Wu Dang (“Two Champions of Death”) except that the material has been altered so that, in addition to swords and knives, the characters wield vinyl records, microphones and headphones as weapons and appear to be singing the lyrics of the song. Get Yourself High, featuring vocals by Canadian rapper K-OS, is the second track released from the Chemical Brothers’ new compilation album Singles ’93–’03 on Virgin.

Kahn edited the video himself creating a condensed version of the kung fu thriller that makes an uncanny fit with the song’s narrative line. The track’s refrain, “Don’t rely on us to get you high,” becomes a mantra that an old sage chants to a young warrior before sending him into battle with a rival gang. The combatants are as much master DJs as martial arts experts so that in the final battle sequence hero and villain square off with giant boom boxes strapped to their necks.

KromA’s role was to integrate the computer-generated musical props into the 25-year-old film footage and to alter the faces of the characters so that they appear to be singing. For the latter, the studio used facial capture technology to record the lip, cheek and jaw movements of an actor reciting the lyric. The resulting data was applied to a CG head that, in turn, was textured, modified and blended with the film footage.

“We added custom controls to hit certain syllables such as P’s and U’s where the lips protrude because the facial capture software did not fully pick up the Z-space movement,” explained KromA visual effects supervisor and lead artist Bert Yukich. “We also animated the tongue and teeth which was necessary to make certain letters look correct.”

In some scenes, the film characters were themselves speaking, which meant that the footage had had to be further modified. Yukich used Elastic Reality to morph the film footage so that the jaw movement of the film characters matched that of the CG model.

KromA animators produced the records, microphones, headphones and boom boxes as CG models. (The mother-of-all-boom-boxes worn by the chief bad guy is an amalgam of features inspired by several real world systems.) The props were then integrated into the film scenes so LPs became deadly projectiles and headphones became the means of applying a death grip to a villain.

Yukich went to considerable lengths to get CG elements to blend with the old film footage. “The source material for the video was a DVD copy of the film chosen by Joseph because of its degraded look,” Yukich said. “The DVD appeared to be made from a poor quality dub and that was further degraded by DVD compression. I used a combination of 50 filters to replicate that look so that the CG appears to be a natural part of the film.”

Credits for KromA go to Bert Yukich, lead artist; Amy Yukich, executive producer. Credits for SuperMega/HSI go to Joseph Kahn, director.

Source: KromA

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As previously reported in Planet Dust intelligence, the Chems are releasing "Get Yourself High" as a single in November. However, the single will now be released on November 24th, and not the 17th as previously mentioned. "Get Yourself High" features vocals from Canadian rapper K-OS and will be released as an extended, non-chart eligible EP. Released over double 12-inch vinyl and CD, it comes backed across the formats with "Electronic Battle Weapon 6", and remixes of "Get Yourself High" from Felix Da Housecat and Switch. "Electronic Battle Weapon 6" was previously released in 2002 (it is essentially a remix of "Hoops" on 12", and also on CD as part of the American EP.

The Planet Dust discography has also been updated with details of the "Get Yourself High" release.

The "Singles 93-03" charted in the UK at Number 9 last week in the album charts, but this week fell to Number 17.

The Chemical Brothers will make their very first appearance at the MTV Europe Awards in Edinburgh, Scotland on November 6th. The Chemical Brothers are nominated for the Best Dance Award, and are up against Junior Senior , Moby, Panjabi MC and Paul Oakenfold. The awards take place in the Ocean Terminal Arena in Leith. The Chems will play live with The Flaming Lips at the ceremony.

The Chemical Brothers "Singles 93-03" DVD has just been released, but in addition to it, another new collection of DVD's is about to be released, called "The Directors Label", which will feature some of the Chems videos. The press release for the DVD collection is as follows: 

Palm Pictures in collaboration with Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham unveil The Directors Label, a unique director-created and compiled DVD series featuring music videos, shorts and commercials, and special features including interviews, alternate versions, unseen short films & documentaries, behind the scenes footage and commentaries from various featured artists and collaborators. Each release will be specially packaged and include a deluxe book full of never before seen photographs, storyboards, drawings and interviews. The Directors Label will debut on October 28 with the simultaneous release of The Work of Director Spike Jonze, The Work of Director Chris Cunningham and The Work of Director Michel Gondry.

Spike Jonze's feature films (Adaptation & Being John Malkovich) have demonstrated a unique sense of comedy and originality that can also be seen in his music videos: the Grammy Award Winning Fatboy Slim clip "Weapon of Choice" (Christopher Walken dancing through a hotel with wild abandon); Björk's "It's Oh So Quiet" (a Busby Berkeley-inspired song and dance); Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" (the band portraying multiple characters in a fictional '70s cop show);and Weezer's "Buddy Holly" (Weezer performing at Al's Drive-In on the set of Happy Days). The Work of Director Spike Jonze also includes three 30-minute-plus documentaries: Torrance Rises, the story of Richard Koufay and the Torrance Dance Community's preparation and eventual performance at the 1999 MTV Music Video Awards with Fatboy Slim; Amarillo By Morning, documentary about young rodeo riders in Houston, Texas; and What's Up Fatlip, a film about former Pharcyde member Fatlip.

French-born Michel Gondry is known for his visually groundbreaking imagery and re-interpretations of reality. A former drummer, his first collaboration with Björk for "Human Behaviour" (featuring Björk as a hunter who eventually winds up inside a bear's stomach), helped revive what was then a dwindling music video industry, and went on to win nearly every music video award. The project sparked a creative relationship between Gondry and Bjork, which led to five more videos. Gondry has also directed the Rolling Stones' "Like A Rolling Stone," Beck's "Deadweight" (set in a world in which everything is reversed); and Radiohead's "Knives Out" (featuring a life-size version of the Operation board game where Thom Yorke and his "girlfriend" play out the demise of their relationship), as well as videos for the Chemical Brothers, the White Stripes, Daft Punk, and the Foo Fighters amongst others.

Additional Directors Label volumes in the ongoing DVD series are slated for release in spring 2004.

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Song To The Siren   
Chemical Beats    
Leave Home   
Setting Sun   
Block Rockin' Beats   
Private Psychedelic Reel  
Hey Boy Hey Girl   
Let Forever Be   
Out Of Control    
Star Guitar    
The Test    
Get Yourself High
The Golden Path

"Get Yourself High" is a collaboration with Canadian rapper K-Os, and "The Golden Path" (which will be released as a single on September 8th to promote the singles collection) is a collaboration with The Flaming Lips. Early copies of the album will include a bonus second CD of rare and live tracks, as chosen by fans via the official Chemical Brothers website. The tracklisting is as follows:

Not Another Drugstore (Planet Nine Mix)
The Duke
If You Kling To Me I'll Klong to You
Otter Rock
Morning Lemon
Galaxy Bounce (Original Version)
Loops Of Fury
Delik
Elektrobank (Live FromThe Roxy,NYC,Nov 96)
Under the Influence (Mix 2)
Piku Playground (Live)

Planet Dust submitted a request to suggest "Morning Lemon" be included on the bonus CD, as it was voted by visitors to Planet Dust in December 2001 as the best "non album" Chemical Brothers track at that time.

In addition to the album, a DVD will be released on the same day, featuring many of The Chemical Brothers videos, such as "Star Guitar" and "Setting Sun".

The Chemical Brothers have also confirmed that they will be playing a DJ set at the Creamfields festival in the UK on August 23rd. 

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As previously reported in Planet Dust, The Chemical Brothers have recorded a track with the Flaming Lips called "The Golden Path", which will be included on the forthcoming singles compilation. As both artists are playing at the Glastonbury Festival in the UK next weekend, The Flaming Lips singer Wayne Coyne, may perform "The Golden Path" live with the Chemical Brothers.

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As well as a possible Glastonbury appearance, The Chemical Brothers are rumoured to be playing at the Witnness Festival in Punchestown, Ireland, in July. The Chems appearance is not yet confirmed. Planet Dust has learned of their appearance from a source within MCD, the promoters. The Chemical Brothers were one of the headliners at last years festival.

Planet Dust is working to seek confirmation of their appearance at Witnness, as well as Glastonbury. Confirmation will be posted on Planet Dust intelligence as soon as possible.

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The Chemical Brothers are to play a DJ set at the 2003 Homelands festival in May. 

The festival, which takes place in Hampshire, UK on May 24th, will also feature Cassius and Audio Bullys. 

Full details available on the official Homelands 2003 website, and full lineup confirmed so far on flier, left.

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