Essential for Sugarcubes fans, 29 Jun 2004

You're probably familiar with the band's quirky, jaunty and often surreal indy/rock/pop sound with Bjork's marvellous vocals and Einar's frequent (and some would say annoying) 'rapping'. Fact: The Sugarcubes are genius. But what about their videos?

Twelve promos are presented on this DVD, three of them as 'extras'. There are no other extras on the DVD.

The production values range from incredibly basic (the Icelandic version of 'Birthday' and 'Luftgitar' look like they were made on a budget of nothing) to pretty high - most notably with their later stuff such as 'Hit', 'Walkabout and 'Vitamin'.

Certainly the Sugarcubes have no time for normality when it comes to their visual ideas. 'Regina' features floating lobsters and a plane with a mouth, and the English version of 'Birthday' portrays the band tucking into a banquet of insects and eyeballs long before Jenny Bond and Kerry McFadden got into it. Then there's 'Walkabout' where Bjork lovingly caresses a cow.

Some of the videos such as 'Cold Sweat' and 'Birthday (English)' consist of a number of different ideas edited together in an completely incongruous fashion. Visually they're just a bit confusing - but you probably won't mind.

Many of the videos feature the Icelandic landscape as well as an impressive selection of Bjork hairstyles, and appearances from Einar the shouty bloke are never far away.

If you're a Sugarcubes fan then you're bound to love this DVD. Whilst it doesn't make much sense, it's an important document of their work, with the 'Cubes themselves involved in the production of most of the promos. The dodgy graphics, editing and costumes in many of the videos only add to the charm of this collection.

(The disc is double sided with PAL on one side and NTSC on the other. Here's the full tracklisting - Birthday (Icelandic), Cold Sweat, Deus, Motorcrash, Luftgitar, Regina, Planet, Eat The Menu, Birthday (English), Hit, Walkabout, Vitamin)

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