Posted by Budgie at November 10, 2005 01:45 PM

3 Heartbeats.

Every now and then there is a television advert that will stop you in your tracks.

There are two that currently do this to me. One is the Orange ad with the couple dancing around their house to the echoing piano lines of Brian Eno's beautiful "1/1" from his "Ambient 1 : Music For Airports" album and the other is the advert for Sony's new LCD TV, Bravia.

Firstly the visuals caught me. An empty San Francisco street is invaded by hundreds and thousands of coloured super balls all bouncing in slow motion down the hill. Going on the sheer number of them, it's pretty impressive stuff. Even more impressive is the fact that there is not one bit of CGI involved. Every ball you see is real and the whole scene was captured in one take using 23 cameras.

Then the music hit me. It works in perfect harmony with the advert but for the first few times I watched it I found it ruined my enjoyment of it. Not because at first I thought it was at odds with the visuals, it was more because I recognised the song, not the singer, and I was tearing my hair out trying to work it out. Then a "eureka" moment occured when I fathomed out it was a tune I knew incredibly well (well, for a couple of days I didn't...), and loved, entitled, "Heartbeats".

As cover versions go, the version in the advert by Sweden's Jose Gonzalez is done incredibly well. The reason I was caught off guard was that the versions I knew were both heavily electronic and featured a female vocal, not some soft voiced fella strumming a guitar.

I say versions above as the two versions of "Heartbeats" I know by fellow Swedes and brother and sister electro kooks, The Knife, are totally different.

The first version I had heard was the Rex The Dog remix of it at the tail end of last year. A stuttering, uplifting, 80's influenced dance track that pretty much showcased Rex The Dog's remixing skills. The next time I came across the track was when I picked up The Knife's "Deep Cuts" album. I didn't like it at first as it is at least half the speed of the Rex The Dog cut, but over time I have grown incredibly fond of it's slow motion electro pop goodness. The video was interesting too, a few kids on skateboards zig-zagging in slow motion down a San Fransisco street...

Track : JOSE GONZALEZ - "HEARTBEATS"

Track : THE KNIFE - "HEARTBEATS"

Track : THE KNIFE - "HEARTBEATS (REX THE DOG REMIX)"

Go Visit : Jose Gonzalez
Go Visit : The Knife
Go Visit : Rex The Dog
Go Visit : Sony / Bravia to see the advert and some featurettes on how it was made.

Go Buy : Jose Gonzales - Veneer
Go Buy : The Knife - Deep Cuts
Go Buy : The Knife - Heartbeats CD Single @ Juno Records
Go Buy : Sony Bravia 32" LCD TV

Feel free to leave a comment about these tracks in The Pipe section of the forum.

Ta,
Budgie