Song Of The Day 6/15/2015: Vandal – “Captain Magic”

Synthesizers That Are Dead Inside: I guess I should slap an explicit-content disclaimer on this post. I wouldn’t say most of the people likely to come across this blog (a number pretty much limited to Facebook friends and maybe a benevolent Twitter stranger) are likely to be offended by its content. But there’s enough going on here that I feel a warning might be the most prudent thing to do, and besides, you might be watching this with your kids who’d rather hear explicit language coming from you. The whole thing’s silly, really. But, anyway, for the record: EXPLICIT CONTENT ADVISORY. Man, that looks clumsy.

British DJ Sam Evans goes by the name Vandal. He’s had club hits in the last 15 years, the most notable and unavoidable being “Mad As Hell,” which as you might expect uses Howard Beale’s speech from Network as its primary sample. But I was more interested in the dehumanized sex and blurry objectification in the video treatment for “Captain Magic.”

You’ll notice the male figure in the video is masked and never has to reveal his identity or motives, and spends the majority of the clip sitting placidly on a stuffed chair without making any unnecessary movements. Plus, he’s imbued with the prospect of being a superhero, perhaps one whose heroism is so ironclad that he doesn’t have to express emotion. He just casually arranges his junk which appears to be located behind a leather-esque codpiece which I guarantee you will not be effective.The woman in the video has to do all the work, and makes only the most fleeting expressions of sensuality throughout the course of her act. Nobody is getting any fulfillment out of this escapade. Everyone came to the party pre-packaged and probably with a list of instructions, maybe an inner tube patch or two. And herein lies the difference between objectification and idealization, the auto-erotic plaster of mediocre science and the patient negotiations of true communality.

Yep, I can crank this shit out like popcorn.