Taken from his fourth album Wizrad: Adventures into Ecstatic Guitar (and Madcap Ambient), Australian guitar whizz D.C Cross has shared a video for A Harebrained Adventure of An Amateur Shaman. In his album review for KLOF Mag, Glenn Kimpton notes the gentle sense of humour running through the twelve tracks of the album, with Cross playing some killer guitar while not taking himself too seriously.
He later adds, when making reference to a number of tracks, including Amateur Shaman, that when D.C Cross lets loose on a straight-up acoustic workout, the result is just as successful because he is a very adept guitarist who is able to take his tunes and gallop. Something he ably demonstrates here ‘with a heavy-thumbed bass line tracing a robust and complex guitar line that is happy to gather momentum as it develops.’
The accompanying video was directed by Steve Hanft, who came to wider attention following the video he did for Beck’s Loser, which received three nominations at the MTV Music Video Awards in 1994, including “Best Male Video”, “Best New Artist In A Video”, and “Best Alternative Video”. He went on to direct videos for The Cure, Mercury Rev, Milk Dee, Primal Scream, Stone Roses and lots more. He’s also done documentary work, including “Strange Parallel”, an experimental documentary on Elliot Smith that was used to promote his XO album.
Keeping with the Beck connections, the clip stars Edy Lopez, who Darren tells us actually designed the sculpture on Beck’s Mellow Gold album cover- he also made a cameo in the music video for the hit song “Loser”. The sculpture was named “Survivor from the Nuclear Bomb”.
With Amateur Shaman, the results speak for themselves, an experimental and adventurous collaboration that results in a total gem. Also our Tune of the Day!
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