Synopsis
Bibio's "Excuses" is an abstract, psychedelic montage rather than a conventional narrative video. Colorful shapes, shifting textures and fragmented images pulse and overlap in kaleidoscopic patterns, creating the sensation of watching light refract through a restless dream. The visuals move between organic and mechanical impressions, matching the track's contrast between mournful melody, fractured percussion and glitch-heavy bass. Instead of presenting characters or a linear story, the clip turns the song's changing moods into a hypnotic stream of color, motion and visual distortion.
Factoids & Trivia
- The video was released in January 2011 ahead of *Mind Bokeh*, whose US release followed on March 29, 2011. "Excuses" served as the album's first single and visual introduction.
- Its visual language echoes the title *Mind Bokeh*: the clip is built around colored lights, blurred forms, repeated patterns and deliberately disorienting layers rather than a literal storyline.
- The production combined 16mm film, Super 8, Canon 5D and 7D footage, digital video, a color tube camera, and black-and-white Pixelvision footage.
- The handmade elements included a Perspex profile mirror and laser-cut bokeh masks. These practical tools helped create the video's fractured, optical textures without relying entirely on computer-generated imagery.
- Stephen Wilkinson, Bibio's primary creative force, also has a background in photography and has described film and music as related forms of illusion-making. That perspective is especially evident here, where the video behaves more like an audiovisual impression than a performance clip.
- The song itself contains a disguised field recording of rain on a tin roof at the opening. Its metronomic sound was created from individually recorded drips from a tap, adding another layer of found-sound detail to the video's analog, textural atmosphere.