Here is an artist I can't stop playing at the moment................ Dels. Not only are the tunes killer but the artist is also hot on his aesthetic having previously studied graphic design. The whole package is gathering momentum gearing up for the album release of GOB in April. So far 2 tracks have been released "Shapeshift" and "Trumpalump" both produced with Jo Goddard from Hot Chip. Other collaborators on the Dels sound are friends Kwes and Micachu so all the ingredients are indicating a tasty menu of tracks on the album............ especially as he has signed to Ninja Tune / Big Dada for his debut.
Although "Trumpalump" is a fictitious word invented by Dels for its onomatopoeia intrigue - the sentiment of the lyrics is based on questioning aspects of dreams. The dialog plays particular focus in the treatment of the video mapping out if humans dream in colour or black and white. To execute this concept Dels devised a day of shooting the narrative with set and makeup as tools with absolutely no post production involved. The whole vision was applied with paint and face paint. To find exactly how this was worked out, I got in touch with makeup artist Poppy France who provided these brilliant behind-the-scenes snaps .............
"The brief was to create a look that would intise and surprise people whilst keeping with the song.. "Black to the white and colour..." these were the lyrics I took and made my own using makeup!
I wanted it look look slightly "off", so that the viewer couldn't quite see what was wrong with it but could tell there was something amiss.
With an iphone I took a picture of Dels (the lead singer) and changed it to black and white and painted him from that, starting with the base colour and building up with different tones and shading.
With the twins, I designed a look that went with the current beauty trends for AW2010. So on the colour twin, as they were wearing sunglasses I concentrated on the lips and cheeks. I kept the lip line darker than the lipstick colour, creating a fuller lip, I brought out the cheek bones with contouring and kept everything else as clear as possible. With the black and white twin I took a photo of the colour twin and again painted from the photograph by shading with blacks whites and tones of grey. I had to paint both their bodies and hands so did all of this from photographs to create the shading and tones correctly.
It took us a day to set up, paint and film this video. Half a day to paint!
I used aqua colour, greasepaint and water based makeup in black and white and translucent powder."
Watch this short documentary above by Yemi Bamiro capturing the action on set.
Click here to see the whole portfolio of Poppy France's work.
To hear a special session recorded at Maida Vale Studios, tune into Huw Stephens on Radio 1 next Weds 26th Jan.
OR to see the man for yourself and have a boogie, book tickets for the April album launch in London when he will be headlining a night supported by Joe Hot Chip and Micachu ............ tickets here.
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