Pitchfork

Raymond Raposa's Castanets will spend the next month or so on a European tour, but they've left a new video for us to puzzle over while they're away. The video for "The Smallest Bones", directed by Ben Piekut and Marie Rossettie, is a small oddity: Raposa sings on the left side of a split screen, the shaky camera allowing his face to go in and out of the frame while a woman does sign language interpretations of the lyrics on the right side.

The split screen also gives the song a clinical feel, like something you'd get on inter-library loan for a research paper. Nevermind that it's a music video ostensibly created for deaf viewers.

"The Smallest Bones" is from Raposa's 2004 album Cathedral, which means Asthmatic Kitty's missed the release date on this one by a dozen or so months. But according to the label, that's not the point. AK assistant director Michael Kaufmann (who came up with the Castanets video concept) says "The Smallest Bones" is the latest in a series of videos the label will compile for eventual release as a DVD collection. The collection will include videos for all AK artists and will have a range of concepts, from fan-created homemade videos to dances and animation. No release date has been set yet.

Castanets on tour:

10-24 Brighton, England - Prince Albert
10-25 London, England - Barden's Boudoir *
10-26 Sheffield, England - Halycon Bar *
10-27 Manchester, England - The Phoenix
10-28 Coventry, England - The Tin Angel *
10-29 Exeter, England - Cavern Club
10-31 Cardiff, Wales - Buffalo Bar *
11-01 Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England - The Cluny *
11-02 Leeds, England - Burley Liberal Club *
11-03 Hull, England - The Adelphi Club *
11-05 Rotterdam, The Netherlands - Rotown #
11-08 Zichem, Belgium - Den Hemel *
11-10 Hamburg, Germany - Astrastube *
11-11 Berlin, Germany - NBI *
11-12 Nuremberg, Germany - K4 *
11-13 St. Gallen, Switzerland - Grabenhalle
11-14 Zurich, Switzerland - Ziegel Oh Lac *
11-15 Schaffhausen, Switzerland - Tap Tab
11-16 Düdingen, Switzerland - Bad Bonn *
11-17 Lyon, France - Victor Hugo #^
11-18 Paris, France - La Maroquinerie ^
11-19 Tilburg, The Netherlands - Cul de sac
11-20 Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Paradiso
11-21 Brussels, Belgium - Botanique (Rotonde)

* with Phosphorescent
# with Man Man
^ with Mojave 3