Pieced together with a similar free-jazz flavour as such under-the-radar classics as Skapegoat 6 and What Goes On, Andrew Mick’s Volume Tape 2 is a twenty minute voyage across the lesser-seen portions of the United States, featuring rusty banisters, enviable concrete skateparks, honed skateboarders, scenic mountains, frosty waterfalls, freight trains and dogs leaping down stairs.
Unrestricted by the shackles of individual rider sections and the ‘no skatepark footage’ rule enforced by militant spot bores, the video is a true visual mezze, served with both the flavoursome salad of laid back vibery, and the chunky halloumi cheese of some highly bodacious motions.
Without going into a thorough Roger Ebert style synopsis of the whole video and churning out a comprehensive list of all tricks accomplished, I will say that Animal 1 Brooklyn Banks fence hopper Grimaldo Duran has a couple of clips in there, Ratkid ice-picks someone’s windowsill and someone (presumed to be Eric Schalles) does a very satisfying looking wall-carve.
Andrew himself probably deserves a mention too. Along with some particularly aggressive, puma-esque leaps on some decrepit prehistoric flatbanks and a fair few tetanus-inducing handrail assaults, he also throws in a few left-field curveballs such as the seldom-seen nollie-feeble-hardway and a very dodgy, high-risk leant out icepick on the side of a multi-storey car-park. It should also be noted that whilst he does some fairly bold moves, he does them all in clothes that fit correctly, and there’s no sign of any leopard print blouses or Seinfeld-esque puffy shirts.
What else is there to say? Does it matter that there’s no credits apart from some handwritten names on a sheet of lined paper? Do you care what camera it was filmed on? Is 20 minutes the optimum running time for a video before ‘trick fatigue’ sets in? Where abouts is that massive full-pipe? Are endless questions mildly irritating? Stop reading this waffle and watch the video.
CENTRAL LIBRARY 