The Afro Nick’s Dream-like Video for “Get There Before Noon” Tells the Story of Personal Liberation in Living Symbols

TheAfroNick2_sm — The Afro Nick, photo courtesy the artist

The Afro Nick’s video for his single “Get There Before Noon” seems dreamlike and symbolic with the figures and instruments in a luminous, white room that seems separate from waking reality. The song sounds like it’s about being defined by others in every way down to being on someone else’s schedule. Those boundaries are represented by the chains placed on him by the more menacing figures. And in the logic of dreams another stranger helps free him with a hacksaw. The song mixes evocative synth swells with dramatic guitar work that comes in the moments where the narrative goes into the mode of breaking free of imposed and imagined limitations on one’s identity and aspirations. If at some point The Afro Nick was steeped in blues and psychedelic rock this song transcends that in a creative way that synthesizes all obvious influences. Thematically it also speaks to the power of the imagination to serve as a liberating force in our lives even if it manifests in our minds as odd, symbolic dreams like something out of a mid-80s Robert Palmer video. Perhaps the artist’s childhood in Crete and now living in Los Angeles accounts for the unusual aesthetic but it works. Watch for yourself at YouTube below and follow The Afro Nick at the links provided.