Synopsis
A single archival performance carries the entire video for "December." A dancer in a flowing, color-tinted costume spins and sweeps the fabric around her body, transforming the frame into a constantly shifting display of light and motion. The footage is presented as a loop, allowing the hypnotic movements to repeat against Braids' atmospheric track. Its century-old imagery creates a stark contrast with the band's dark, electronic sound, turning the clip into an abstract meditation on beauty, decay, and the passage of time.
Factoids & Trivia
- The video is a David Dean Burkhart edit rather than a conventional band performance clip. Its central image is archival footage identified in the upload as a performance of Loie Fuller's "Danse Serpentine."
- The source material dates from the earliest years of cinema, around 1896. Serpentine dance films were commonly hand-colored frame by frame to recreate the changing stage lights and vivid fabric effects associated with Fuller's act.
- The clip appeared online on August 22, 2013, shortly after "December" was released on Braids' second album, *Flourish // Perish*, on August 20, 2013.
- "December" is the third track on *Flourish // Perish* and runs for 4 minutes and 43 seconds.
- Braids wrote, recorded, and mixed *Flourish // Perish* at Studio Toute Garnie in Montreal. The album marked a move toward a more electronic and introspective sound after a band-member departure.
- The video's repeated movement suits the song's immersive structure: instead of illustrating lyrics with a narrative, it lets the archival dancer's constant transformation function as a visual counterpart to the music.