Bjork-Volumen (1998)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Scene Selection Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	1998
Running Time	64:31
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Various
Studio Distributor	One Little Indian Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Bjork
Case	Super Jewel
RPI	$36.95	Music	Bjork

    This is an excellent collection of videos that showcase some of the imaginative and innovative directors that have worked with Björk. Each of the video clips have a unique style and they highlight some of the ground breaking work that has been done with music videos in the past few years.

    The majority of videos were directed by Michel Gondy who has worked with Björk on tracks from each of her solo albums. In addition to Michel there are a number of other directors including Spike Jonze who also directed the Beastie BoysSabotage video clip and went on to direct his first feature Being John Malkovich.

   The disc includes the video for Army of Me which when played on MTV is censored and has the ending removed replaced with a 'To Be Continued' message. Luckily the version included on this disc contains the full version of the clip that shows Björk (Ed. Plot spoiler-highlight with mouse) planting a bomb in a museum. The unedited version is also played on Rage so it should be familiar to Australian audiences but I am sure I have also seen the edited version played on a morning music show that often uses the MTV edited versions of video clips.

    Unfortunately, this disc was produced before the release of my favourite Björk video clip All is Full of Love. This video features two intimate robots and was produced by Chris Cunningham who surprisingly also produced the video Come to Daddy by Aphex Twin. This was the first DVD music single to be commercially available and would have been a welcome addition to this package.

Video

    The transfer is presented at the original aspect ratios of the video clips and is not 16x9 enhanced at any stage. The majority of the clips are presented full frame at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 but the clips for Its Oh So Quiet and Hunter are presented at 1.78:1, Possibly Maybe is presented at 1.85:1 and Play Dead is presented at 1.78:1 and includes clips from the film The Young Americans presented at 2.35:1.

    The transfer is acceptably sharp throughout but can seem slightly soft at various points due to the MPEG artefacts outlined below. There is no specific low level noise apparent during the transfer. Shadow detail is surprisingly good at all stages with large amounts of detail visible in the dark scenes. Some film grain is obvious during a couple of the clips but this is not distracting at all.

    The colours are always vibrant and accurately portrayed.

    Throughout the whole transfer there are constant visible MPEG encoding errors. Many areas of high detail display Gibbs effects resulting in an apparent loss in sharpness. These artefacts are more obvious during particular clips, such as Big Time Sensuality, but are present for the duration of the transfer. Macro blocking artefacts can also seen at numerous points during the transfer with obvious examples seen at 5:04 and 10:04. These errors are quite distracting to the viewer.

    There are numerous examples of aliasing present that can be seen at 3:34 and 13:28 and numerous other points during the transfer.

    During some of the initial video clips, some film artefacts may be seen. The clips that exhibit the most problems are Human Behaviour, Play Dead and Army of Me, with specific examples at 11:02, 12:09 and 25:02. Numerous film artefacts can be seen during the clips Isobel and Bachelorette but these are intentional and exist in the source material. At no stage are any of these artefacts significantly distracting to the viewer.

    Four analogue tape errors can be seen during the clip Big Time Sensuality occurring at 15:29, two at 15:42 and finally at 16:01. Each of these errors occur for only a single frame and are not distracting to the viewer.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The only audio present on the disc is a two channel PCM track.

    The lyrics are always clear and easy to understand but a subtitle track with lyrics would have been a nice addition.

    As these are music video clips where the video is recorded separately from the audio there are some obvious small problems with audio sync. This is to be expected and is not distracting at any time. There was no evidence of dropouts or other audio problems detected at any stage.

    The 2.0 mix does not contain any surround information.

    The subwoofer is engaged throughout the disc and it receives an excellent workout on some tracks with Hunter and Hyperballad being obvious examples.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Scene Selection Animation

• 2nd Disc containing clips of Alarm Call and All is Full of Love
• Booklet containing lyrics for all tracks

• 2nd Disc containing clips of Alarm Call and All is Full of Love
• Booklet containing lyrics for all tracks

• Nothing

    The video transfer unfortunately has numerous problems but the audio quality is excellent.

    The complete lack of extras on this disc is also disappointing and would have been greatly enhanced with the addition of biographies, a discography and a lyrics subtitle track.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall