With the new Quasi Skateboards video Mother lasting all of about ten minutes on the internet before getting slapped down for copyright violation (something which didn’t happen with DVDs), it has come down to an online hero – namely regular uploader of skateboarding goodness veganxbones – to sneak past the Keepers of the Algorithm the full video for those of us who missed it’s brief period of company-uploaded online exposure, or didn’t have the wherewithal to immediately download it.
Thus you can enjoy the video in its fully scored entirety without having to create your own soundtrack from, say, setting up a selection of cutlery and crockery to create a crude approximation of a drum set on which to make your own beat, or attempt desperately to whistle a tune whilst armpit farting on the beat of every landed trick, while even now Chad Bowers has a truncheon around his neck as he is frogmarched to the Youtube Copyright Infringement Gulag – which, mark my words, will be a real thing before too long.
Terrifying visions of a not-too-futuristic dystopia notwithstanding, what we have here is perhaps not the scene changing catalyst that Quasi fans thought it might be but still acts as a well put together company video with some of modern skateboarding’s finest abusers of street furniture. After Mother kicks off in the tried and tested manner of an intro section, Justin Henry gets things going with a rad line at 3rd and Army which flows into a section of well rounded shredding. Handrails? Technical ledge lines? Big pop? This one has it all.
Tyler Bledsoe has been sowing his furrow in well stomped technical skating for a good long time now, with his Frank Zappa-scored part here showing no signs of that changing as he lays into ledges like there’s no tomorrow as well as throwing in some more adrenaline inducing hammers. Josh Wilson goes fast and skates to Kate Bush, the kind of juxtaposition which can always be appreciated when done well (which it is here), and adds a slightly more rabid approach style wise to a video otherwise given over to the smoothest of operators.
Talking of smooth operators, Jake Johnson and Al Davis share the next part, a combination of style which is highly approved of here. For some reason the soundtrack takes a break at this point and this section is left raw – perhaps the editor had just heard that Kate Bush endorsed Theresa May after putting together Josh Wilson’s section and needed a good lie down? I know I would… Anyway, by the time Dick Rizzo appears on screen then he’s recovered enough to ring up Bobbito Garcia for a shout out and a jazzy Portishead beat which chimes perfectly with Rizzo’s ability to handle the most tetanus-encrusted spots with seeming ease. The following freestyle which backs the second half of the section sounds like it’s from the Stretch and Bobbito Show too, but the hip hop nerd in me is hanging his head in shame at the fact I don’t recognise it.
A two song assault from Dick Rizzo isn’t an easy thing to follow, but if anyone is up to that challenge then it’s Gilbert Crockett. His curtain closing part is everything we’ve come to expect from the high popping purveyor of steez, making waist high ledges look like curbs in his continuing battle with the forces of gravity. A well deserved ender indeed!
