Watch: Sim Hutchins - Melanotan II
After releasing his full-length ambient drone inspired project 'I Enjoy To Sweep A Room' late last year and getting the remix treatment from Elysia Crampton on album track Tie Me To A Rocket, No Pain In Pop poster boy Sim Hutchins returned to the label last week with his 12" release ''Melanotan II / No Paco Rabanne'.
Named after an unlicensed synthetic hormone used for artificial tanning, Melanotan II is a shout out to the short but very sweet lifespan of London's decadent UK funky scene and the Essex clubs that Sim heard it in, with the flip-side No Paco Rabanne harking back to the telltale (and very un-PC) rhyme of men's toilet attendants trying to push bad cologne (“No Paco Rabanne, you go home with a man.”)
Fully committed to the cause, Sim put together an emoji riddled video for Melanotan II, which is like flushing your head down the toilet of the world where in little smiley faces, flames and half-peeled bananas have a totalitarian rule over our everyday communications. "It's like going back to Egyptian hieroglyphs," said somebody's grandad, somewhere.
Whether you're LOLing at nudes or about to dump your Paco Rabanne-less girl/boyfriend by emoji, tune into Sim Hutchins' video above, and get lost in the (contemporary hieroglyphic flavoured) sauce.
p.s. for all us cave dwellers, Sim's put together a user guide for fake tan, emojis, and Melanotan II below. Our site doesn't support emojis, but it if did, 100 points sign.
Sim Hutchins on fake tan
Essex is the original home of fake tan. I remember switching on the news once to see the BBC peddle out a bunch of sunbed shaming language, then proceeding to do vox pops with the bronzed students outside my college. Not shy of a visit to “the electric beach”, an orange uniform is a must for the standard basics here. In fact, Harlow's train station famously has it's very own spray tan booth (it really does). Fortunately for me, my golden complexion peaks on a partially cloudy February morning, so I negate to participate in this staple of Essex life.
Sim Hutchins on the video for Melanotan II
Visually I wanted to represent the playfulness and complexity of the track in the form of an animated video, and I took the lo-fi approach (as always) and used Cat Frazier's 3D emojis, and Chris Shier's "gif melting" website to do it. Contrary to how it looks, this was not fun to make at all. In fact, I toiled over this endlessly before it was finished. Everything was hand animated by mouse, which involves slowly moving the pointer over a long period of time, then speeding up said recording. I kinda like the juxtaposition of gruelling hermit-like processing versus bubbling-in-the-club soundtrack, and using tools on the net that no self-respecting video artist would probably consider is always my jam.
Sim Hutchins on emojis
The uni-code universal language that everyone with eyesight can understand. Being able to communicate via symbols is the best way to help conceal crippling anxiety and depression from those closest to you. There was nothing quite like the threatening nature of a single gun emoji in a message, that's before the liberal scum at Apple changed it to a plastic toy in the latest update. I like to pretend the water pistol is full of Tabasco sauce, though. Whilst quizzing my brother on the Samsung trap phone he uses not having an emoji keyboard, I was met with the response “I don't need emojis, look at me… I am an emoji!”
I dumped your girlfriend by emoji.
'Melanotan II / No Paco Rabanne' is out September 23rd, 2016 on No Pain In Pop.
