Alien Workshop video review
Mind Field will go down in skateboarding history as a timeless classic.
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So I know I'm late as hell on writing about Alien Workshop's newest release, Mind Field, but as some person more responsible than myself once said, "It's better late than never."
And if I can be allowed to further justify my tardiness, I'm gonna go right out and out and state for the record, Mind Field will go down in skateboarding history as a timeless classic.
But let's back things up a bit. It's safe to say that no other skateboard company in the history of skateboarding has visually branded themselves the way Workshop has.
Their first video release, Memory Screen, back in the early 90's, established Workshop as more than just a company manufacturing skateboards. They were a movement, comprised of art, influence and above all, a message. Quick, surreal, experimental-style 16mm/Super 8 imagery was interspersed with skating in a way that had never been seen before.
Since then, every video release by Workshop has contained similar, artistic components. The long awaited, 4th release from Workshop holds true to the style it has maintained over the years without compromising the focus of the video, it's insanely amazing roster.
There's far too much good skating to critique so I'll just go and highlight some of the videos best parts. The video opens with homage to longtime Workshop collaborator, Dinosaur Jr. and the bands front man, J. Mascis. The montage quickly blends into Omar Salazar's part. Skating fast as hell, bulleting through tricks with a style like no one else's, Salazar's part is one of the best in the video.
Skating second is the young upstart, Jake Johnson. Fully living up to the hype surrounding his abilities, Johnson manhandles everything in his path; including some of the burliest NYC spots never before skated. The double set wallride he does is insane.
Arto Saari makes his Workshop video debut with a super solid part, skating smooth, tech and big, even making use of a double kink with a long-ass backside lipslide. Dylan Rieder is amazing and skates to an Elliott Smith track. Grant Taylor can skate everything. Josh Kalis secures his spot on the team with one of his best parts yet.
Jason Dill's part is a bit short but as always, stylish and original. Switch 180 manual backside 360 . Enough said for Dill. Tyler Bledsoe can do any trick combo he wants, involving a flip in and/or out. My favorite part belongs to AVE. Van Engelen skates 100 MPH, shooting through lines mixing both tech and big. His switch back to front tails and ollie straight-over- the-rail tricks are mind-blowing.
The final part belongs to Heath Kirchart. Skating to Morrissey, Kirchart hucks himself down everything, rolling away from giant hubba front boards and gap to rail back lips. His last couple tricks are so gnarly he needs to be towed by a motorcycle. Be sure to check it out, as the proof is in the pudding.
All in all, Mind Field is a video that was well worth the wait. The DVD packaging includes a 60-page photo book featuring the making of the video over the span of 2005 to 2009 and a bunch of great outtakes and bonus material. If you haven't already added this one to the collection, you're gonna want to do that stat. In the meantime, be sure to check Workshop and Habitat's brand new Spring/Summer 09 flip book.
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Alien Workshop video review (text) by Jay Riggio is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.Comments (3)
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Heath Kirchart and Jeremy's Klein's section in The End will always be my favourite.
http://www.spike.com/player/?i.....2655653
They set themselves on fire for fuck's sakes! Awesome
MURS raps over it about Craigs skating, dope, dope, dope tune
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....related
Thanx for the headsup