Melbourne-based electronic duo Willow Beats have dropped a new clip for their latest and equally ethereal track, reminding us to ‘Be Kind To Yourself’.
Directed and edited by Oren Kanski Lavie, the clip portrays the dreamlike, fairytale deterioration of what appears to be a corpse. The dead-eyed woman lays motionless in the clearing of a lush forest landscape; with each passing moment her lifeless body becomes adorned in brightly coloured fungi and intricately woven veins. As vocalist Kalyani’s lilting chorus repeats, ‘be kind to yourself / flowerbed’, it isn’t a stretch to imagine this woman’s body is gradually returning to the earth following her demise.
Superficially, this clip is a lesson in the painstaking measures makeup and production assistants must endure to curate such a sensitive aesthetic. And to create a clip that visually supplements the haunting synths synonymous with Willow Beats? A feat in itself!
Beyond the visually pleasing production, I can’t help but wonder if this track is a comment on our need to stay ‘grounded’, and stay in touch with nature – as eventually, all our lifeless shells will return to the earth. In a time of mindless littering and mass-pollution, we should ‘stay woke’ in the fight for our environment. It’s easy to lapse into an unconscious and glazed-over mentality that Mother Nature will fix herself, and in turn our environmental woes will magically be rectified. Na-uh, honey. Willow Beats’ latest clip reminds us that in order to “be kind your yourself”, tend to your own flowerbeds.
Feast your eyes on the ‘spore-gasbord’ that is, ‘Be Kind To Yourself’ by Willow Beats.
