Synopsis
James Delay's "Howl" is a kinetic, impressionistic video built around movement rather than a conventional storyline. Its imagery travels through urban and rural spaces, using trains, escalators, lifts, wind, gravity and underground perspectives to mirror the track's rising intensity. Several visual threads unfold in parallel, repeatedly interrupted and reconnected as the music develops. The result is a restless journey from urgent, mechanical motion into more fluid and dreamlike territory, with natural landscapes and digital imagery placed in deliberate counterpoint.
Factoids & Trivia
- "Howl" was James Delay's debut music video.
- The video was filmed over two weeks in locations around London, Wells in North Norfolk, and areas toward Paris.
- Its imagery was developed as a personal response to the music rather than as an adaptation of a pre-existing narrative.
- Motion is the video's central visual principle. Escalators, lifts and trains represent systems that carry people forward while remaining outside their control.
- As the track grows more tense, the visual perspective moves underground and becomes more anxious, matching the changing emotional pressure of the music.
- Three sequences run in parallel, with interruptions and disconnections used to echo the pulse and structure of the track.
- The video intentionally avoids a clear resolution, treating the arrangement's open-ended phrases as an opportunity for visual ambiguity.
- A companion presentation about James Delay's sound identifies him as a London-based producer who was 26 at the time and credits Dimo Trifonov with 3D animation, post-production and concept work.
- "Howl" was issued as a single in 2010.