In 2013, artist Doug Aitken’s “kinetic light sculpture” (a train with brilliantly illuminated side panels) travelled from New York to San Francisco, stopping at 10 stations, picking up artists and musicians en route. This film, comprising 62 minute-long-shorts, provides an engaging snapshot of the project, blending footage of “happenings” with on-board conversations and performances. Highlights include the Black Monks of Mississippi and the Kansas City Marching Cobras raising the roof, Beck leading a gospel choir in the Mojave desert, Savages breathing new life into the spirit of post-punk, Giorgio Moroder musing on the creation of electro-funk, and Mavis Staples sending a shiver up our spines. Inevitably, some segments are more engaging than others, but the fleeting collage moves so fast that we’re always hurrying on to the next beat, the next station. The result (released alongside a Barbican season) is admirably lacking in installation-style pretentiousness.
