⏉☈ℹ︎ℳ⍷t☈ℹ︎⍧ – Drifter
9.5.18 by Ryan Masteller

“Drifter” is a “short film by ⏉☈ℹ︎ℳ⍷t☈ℹ︎⍧,” and if I were to walk into my local Blockbuster, I’d peer around these shelves to see which one the astute clerk filed the VHS tape under: “analog hypnotism/ glitchy spaghetti western/ unfamiliar nostalgia/ spooky ghost story/ low fidelity adventure.” Sounds like Terry Gilliam and Sergio Leone got together and codirected maybe the greatest film alive, doesn’t it? It would at least have to be better than “Zero Theorem.”

Well, as short films go, this one is terrible – there’s nothing to see, after all, no visuals whatsoever. But if you pretend it’s not a film and is actually a piece of music masquerading as a film, then you’re in really good shape, because “Drifter” is utterly fascinating. Comprised of twenty short pieces, none longer than 1:48, “Drifter” takes you on a cinematic journey where samples and beats collide across fault lines and generate new landmarks out of which spring spotlights marking the locations of movie premieres at art house cinemas. Like DJ Wally with a short attention span and a stack of laserdiscs, ⏉☈ℹ︎ℳ⍷t☈ℹ︎⍧ harnesses instrumental hip hop and crafts a narrative – one I can’t really follow, but hey, I’m not a film critic. I’m here for the music. The music moves me.

There are only six more of these left – out of twenty! Hurry up, you guys, get it from the ⏉☈ℹ︎ℳ⍷t☈ℹ︎⍧ page!