Aidan Zamiri and FKA twigs embrace the challenges of going guerilla in the arrestingly lo-fi promo for Ride The Dragon. The candid video opens on the steps of Hackney Town Hall in East London, where twigs and her gang of dancers position themselves for a flashmob dance routine - to be captured on a long lens by DoP Molly Manning Walker. But it was never going to be that easy. With echoes of the classic video for Fatboy Slim's Praise You, the performance is interrupted when council staff and security guards act to promptly shut them down and move the girls along - leaving a confused-looking boom-op in their wake.The rest of the video documents how the gang regather at a local corner shop, regaining their zest before returning to complete their challenge, just metres away from the original location - before the heavy mob move in again. It's a far more rough-and-ready, doc-style affair than twigs and Zamiri's previous collaboration on the 645AR track Sum Bout You - or indeed any previous twigs video. The first of a series of videos directed by Zamiri for Caprisongs, twigs's newly released mixtape, it also suggests a more spontaneous and impulsive side of the artist that actually adds to her mystique, and directly communicates her fantastic ability as a dancer.
Rob Ulitski - 18th Jan 2022