The Directors Label Series is all about finding the most innovative people working in the short-format music video field and showcasing their body of work. Each of the directors represented in this boxset has achieved some level of critical success in the feature film world - Spike Jonze with Being John Malkovich and Adaptation; Michel Gondry with the brilliant Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Chris Cunningham as a visual effects wizard and commercial/installation artist on films such as Alien: Resurrection and AI - but all are seemingly at the top of their game in the music video industry.

Volume 1: Spike Jonze - Jonze got his start making skateboard films, and through that caught the attention of Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon. Together, they directed The Breeders' "Cannonball" video, which features on this set. However, Jonze's body of work is both eclectic and impressive. His influences are largely pop cultural, riffing on everything from bad 1970s cop shows (with The Beastie Boys' "Sabotage", quite possibly one of my favourite music videos ever) to big band 1940s dance sequences (Björk's "Oh So Quiet"). While seemingly disconnected and without a consistent style, Jonze certainly has left a stamp on each of the videos he has directed. However, this shows a versatility not seen in other music video directors, especially those that have worked so much in the hip-hop industry as Jonze has. The two videos for Fatboy Slim featured on this set show just how flexible he is as a director. The "Weapon of Choice" video - brilliantly featuring actor Christopher Walken dancing, and even flying, through an empty hotel - is a slick and expensive-looking production. On the flip side, the very low-budget DIY-style "Praise You" video, featuring Jonze himself as the head of a local dance troupe, intentionally uses the poor quality video and dancing to bring us a the feel of a documentary in a move that foreshadowed the rise of YouTube years before the fact. Aside from the ones already mentioned, other highlights include Weezer's "Buddy Holly", which blends the band seamlessly with footage from the TV show Happy Days, and the Daft Punk video "Da Funk".

Volume 2: Chris Cunningham - Cunningham is very much a director working within the modern. His distinctive style is characterised by mechanisation and the grotesque, so it is unsurprising that he got his break as a special effects artist on horror films such as Nightbreed and Alien³. Throughout this set, it is clear that Cunningham has the most easily recognisable visual style. The first big video that grabbed people's attention was for Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy", an insanely twisted and disturbing vision of demonic children bearing the unmistakable visage of Twin's Richard James. (Note: Do not watch this alone at night). This led to a collaboration with Madonna on the "Frozen" video, and the robotic love story within Björk's "All Is Full of Love". However, the highlight of this set is undoubtedly the 10-minute second collaboration with Aphex Twin on the "Windowlicker" track. It is a hilarious and disturbing parody of the misogyny of traditional hip-hop music videos, simultaneously celebrating the erotically grotesque (or the grotesquely erotic, if you prefer).

Volume 3: Michel Gondry - The visual genius of Michel Gondry is such that I wouldn't mind taking a wander around inside his head, just to get an idea of what makes him tick. In an age of computer graphics and special effects, he manages to produce most of his amazing visuals either in-camera (the one-take Lucas video, "Lucas with the Lid Off") or with stop motion effects (The White Stripes' "The Hardest Button to Button"). While he does have a very distinctive style, he also tends to play around with similar themes such as dreams (Foo Fighters' "Everlong" and The Chemical Brothers' "Let Forever Be"), as well as a fascination with childhood objects, such as LEGO in The White Stripes' "Fell in Love with a Girl". Even the menus on this DVD are made to resemble a coloured pencil set. His style has earned him fans both within the music and film communities, and this is evidenced by a number of frequent collaborations with several artists. His most enduring is undoubtedly with Björk, who not only features on every disc in this set, but has seven videos alone with Gondry. Of course, a recent friendship with The White Stripes has produced some of the best videos of the last few years, as mentioned above, and also included a giant head resembling late-night talk show host, Conan O'Brien. (That was later featured in "The Denial Twist" video, not featured on this set). This set even includes Gondry's earlier work in France, including that of the videos he did for his own band Oui Oui in which Gondry drummed. "La Ville" is definitely a stand-out from this early work.

Aside from showing that Björk has worked with almost every major music video director in the business, the grouping of these three directors in this set shows just how good a music video can be when it is auteur based and not defined by commercial interests. In almost every video on this set, the video serves as a companion piece that enhances and compliments the songs, rather than simply serving to distract you for three-and-a-half minutes. The musical artists on this boxset are extremely diverse, ranging from pop princess Kylie Minogue to avante garde electronic artists Squarepusher, yet the three directors manage to not only carry their own vision consistently through the tracks, but provide the musical artists with a visual identity that defines them just as much as their music does. In short, this is a collection of pure musical and visual genius.

These are presented in a non-anamorphic 4:3 ratio. Given that the majority of these videos were designed with 4:3 televisions in mind, this isn't a problem. The appropriate videos, usually the more recent ones, are letterboxed if they were filmed in a widescreen process. I suppose I could bitch and moan about the lack of an anamorphic presentation on these widescreen videos, but ultimately it doesn't detract too much.

The videos themselves vary in quality greatly, as there is material here from 1987 through to about 2005 (that would be the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Y Control" on the bonus disc). The earliest ones still look pretty good, although they are certainly the ones that have the most grain on them. A variety of different film techniques are used as well, including the intentionally lo-fi "Praise You" video by Spike Jonze. Shot on a sub-professional camera with absolutely nothing professional about it, the shabby look is purely intentional. However, on some of the more slick productions, we get great-looking prints, and certainly better than the treatment these are given on most video shows. Look! There is a music video under all those station promos and pop-ups.

One other minor quibble is that the Jonze and Gondry discs are 'flipper' discs, with an A and B side. While it takes just as much effort to flip a disc over as it does to put in Disc 2, I would have liked to have seen these as two-disc sets. After all, there is some minor pixelation to be seen, and I often wonder if this would have been avoided if a full disc was devoted to each half.

A virtually flawless presentation for what we get, and we always have to keep in mind that while this may not be surround sound, they were never intended to be heard in such a format, and this is technically better than most CDs.

Given the sheer volume and variety of bonus features found on this 4-Disc set - with the fourth disc being additional bonus material - I will take a slightly different approach to reviewing the bonus features, as is fitting for a collection that is a little bit different to start with. As such, I will give an overview of the bonus features on each disc, followed by details of the bonus disc.

Disc 1 - Spike Jonze

The major feature on Side A of this disc is the collection of Audio Commentaries with Jonze and the majority of the artists featured on this DVD. Commentators include Beastie Boys, Fatboy Slim, Weezer, The Pharcyde, Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers, Bjork, Christopher Walken, Puffy, and accompanying Interviews with some of them round-out the idea that these were all fun collaborators to work with. The B-side of the disc treats us to two early short films from Jonze; an audition tape for an aborted Oasis music video and a skateboarding short film excerpted from Mouse, a Girl Skateboards. In the Documentaries category, a documentary called "What's Up Fatlip?", which is a about the titular artist and the buzz around him. Two other documentaries are included: "Amarillo By Morning", about a couple of would-be teenage cowboys, and the comedic highlight of the set, "Torrance Rises", which chronicles the road to the MTV Music Video Awards for the Torrance Community Dance Troupe featured in "Praise You". Jonze reprises his role as Richard Koufey. If that isn't enough, there are a few trailers for the other two DVDs in this set; a preview for Yeah Right! a Girl Skateboards and the Adaptation: Special Edition. You want more? Let's move on to Disc 2 then, shall we?

Disc 2 - Chris Cunningham

Plunging right back into the bonus department, you'll find that Chris Cunningham's disc is a single-sided affair with far less to offer in terms of supplements than the other two discs. However, this is simply because it deals with a smaller body of work. In addition to his Video Installation art we see featured (both of which feature music from Aphex twin); we are also treated to some of his Commercial work. Featured ads include one for a Sony Playstation; an unaired Levis ad and a Nissan promo. An amusing inclusion is also the Windowlicker - Bleeped Version, that censors the opening dialogue in the short film/music video. The sheer volume of swearing in the clip makes this something close to an electronic track when censored. Last, but in no way least, is a featurette about the Making of "All is Full of Love". The Björk video is perhaps one of Cunningham's most recognisable, and the only regret is that we didn't see more of these featurettes for the other videos. Some commentaries would have been nice too. However, with Cunningham's work in particular, perhaps a bit of mystery is best.

Disc 3 - Michel Gondry

Gondry's imagination is such that even the menus on this disc are brilliant. In them, we see Gondry's children (presumably) trapped inside a drumkit as he plays; coloured pencil sets and all sorts of things that instantly scream "Gondry was here". Case in point is the 75-minute documentary I've Been 12 Forever, presented here in lieu of an audio commentary. Split into two parts over Sides A and B, part 2 comes first because the newer videos are found on Side A. It makes sense when you think about things from Gondry's point of view, which is something that this documentary does very well. Through commentary from the artists and the man himself, interviewed in his lounge room with his mother (!), we get behind the scenes footage; stories; storyboards and other nuggets of gold that help us piece together just where this man gets his seemingly random ideas from. The other feature that is split over the two sides of the disc is entitled Stories and Things, and this is an eclectic collection of short films, commercials and other footage. Viewers will undoubtedly recognise the "Drugstore Levis Commercial" and the distinctive "Smarienberg Smirnoff Commercial", and the "Polaroid" ad has a look to it as well. Early films include "La Lettre" and "One Day", and there are Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind tie-ins as well ("Pecan Pie" and "Lacuna Inc.). Finally, we get to see the short-docos "Drumb & Drumber" (keep in mind Gondry used to be a drummer); "My Brother's 24th Birthday" and  montage of concert footage from his band Oui Oui. If you still don't think that is enough, then there is still the bonus disc to go!

Bonus Disc

Here we come to the reason for the box set's "MA 15+" rating. Strangely, not because of a Chris Cunningham clip, but rather for the Spike Jonze helmed Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Y Control" video. It features a group of children causing destruction and violent mayhem, and I assume the OFLC's concern was that this was imitable behaviour. Also included as a Spike Jonze bonus is the video for Weezer's "Island in the Sun", and an excerpt from the skateboarding film Yeah Right! In Gondry's section of the disc, we get two lesser known videos for The Willowz ("I Wonder") and Kishu & Co. ("Ossamuch!"). While Cunningham is not given a separate bonus section, he is included in the Chris, Spike and Michel panel excerpt, which was taken from a Virgin Megastore interview session and also features actor Jack Black and director Ty Evans.

Booklets

Each DVD, with the exception of the bonus disc, is accompanied by an outstanding 52-page booklet. These contain photos, behind the scenes shots, storyboards, interviews and other bonuses. All of them are valuable additions to any music fan's collection by themselves, and accompanying these DVDs it makes this a just about perfect set of extras.

Without mincing words, this is easily one of the best music video releases to ever be put out on the market. The only criticism that could be made is that they are simply not long enough, with either a few omissions probably brought about through music rights, or the sheer scope of the director's work being such that it was impossible to distill in one set. At any rate, the stated aim of these sets is not to be comprehensive - although they come pretty close - but to showcase the work of some of the finest directors working in the industry. When this set is joined by Boxset 2 in late January 2007 - and includes the work of the brilliant Mark Romanek, Anton Corbijn, Jonathan Glazer and Stephane Sednaoui - we will have one of the finest collections of music videos of the last fifteen years.

At under $70, this set is incredible value. Some of you may have seen these floating around from Shock and on import for a while now, and I believe they were Region 0 NTSC transfers at a slightly higher price. However, this PAL release at such a small price - $29.95 for the individual sets, but of course you don't get the bonus disc that way - is too good an offer to pass up for music fans everywhere.

Highly recommended.