This is Video of the Week from Wales Arts Review. We’ll be showcasing some of the best art in Wales with a new video shared every week. From music to drama and everything in between, videos will not be limited by medium. Today’s video is ‘Dusty Road’ by Colorama.
We’re now in the third week of our 100 Greatest Welsh Albums of All Time series, and the latest instalment of the countdown has seen the likes of Peanut Butter by Joanna Gruesome and Kim Chong Hun by Jac Da Trippa make the list. This week’s Video of the Week is ‘Dusty Road’ from Chaos Wonderland by Colorama, album 72 of the countdown.
According to Carwyn Ellis, ‘Dusty Road’, is about an outcast who is on the run. ‘The video features a hazy re-working of a mid-70s American educational film for school kids which is a cautionary tale about the hazards of joyriding,’ explains Ellis. ‘The only thing is, they made it look a little too cool so I’m not sure how much of a deterrent it was!’
As part of this week’s countdown, Caragh Medlicott wrote of Colorama’s album:
‘Chaos Wonderland is the ninth album from Colorama (the moniker for multi-instrumentalist Carwyn Ellis), arriving three years after his acclaimed LP, Some Things Just Take Time. Despite being recorded in 2018, Chaos Wonderland is aptly named for the year of its release, the album itself reflecting broadly on themes of global disruption and political disease but honing in on the dissonance of personal experiences of beauty and love. With a late ’60s sensibility and occasional turn to the cinematic, Chaos Wonderland comes with an analogue edge and instrumental flourish that will be familiar to both longtime Colorama fans and appreciators of Ellis’ producer on this record, Shawn Lee. Indeed, the whole album tracks an eclectic journey through Ellis and Lee’s off-kilter sonically conjoined imaginations, dips into Motown pastiches, and then returns to the more familiar shores of indie-pop and indie-folk melodies. From the soft, sparkly, hymnal ‘Me & She’ to the breezy modern soul of ‘Reconciliation’, Chaos Wonderland is an escapist joy, perfectly timed for the dark days of the pandemic, but with a durability that is sure to take it into a time far beyond.’
Watch the video for ‘Dusty Road’ below, and take a look at albums 80–71 of our 100 Greatest Welsh Albums of All Time countdown here.
Chaos Wonderland by Colorama is available now.
