D.O. Roth, the German video director who brought Joy Division back to life in a Playmobil animation, earning more than 600,000 YouTube viewers, has struck again. Last year, the internet came alive with talk of the legendary band’s 1979 TV performance of Transmission being performed by the toy figures.

Following success with his plastic versions of Ian Curtis and the acclaimed Factory Records band, Leipzig based film maker D.O. Roth has returned to music videos by working with Manchester band, The Slow Readers Club. Using the same arduous production process as before, Roth has made Playmobil versions of the band to perform in a perfectly observed, stop frame animation – complete with audience participation.

Building a miniature stage set in his apartment, Roth has painstakingly recreated the band’s performance of new single Feet On Fire by watching footage of the Manchester four-piece and recreating their every move. The end result of 100 hours hard work is a cute interpretation of the group’s otherwise brooding appearances, amazingly captured without ever meeting the band.

Roth says: “Over half a million people saw my Joy Division video and I got a great reaction, so it was great to work with a current band in the same way. The Slow Readers Club guitarist Kurt (Starkie) got in touch and we went from there. He sent me a description of the bands’ style, how they looked and how they dressed. With the information that he sent me I searched for the fitting miniatures and instruments and started to put them together.”

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Control, a ‘darkwave township house’ cover of the Joy Division classic She’s Lost Control, is the fourth single to be taken from South African producer/DJ Spoek Mathambo’s album, Mshini Wam. The video was shot in Langa, a township in Cape Town and was made using a cast made up mainly of kids from the local dance troupe, Happy Feet. Eerie, and just plain frikken’ cool! Directed and shot by Peter Hugo and Micheal Cleary.

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Pieter Hugo is one of South Africa’s most talented photographers, probably best known for his Hyena Men, Nollywood and Permanent Error series’. When he ventured off into the world of video, it would only make sense for him to join up with one of the freshest MC’s in the country, Spoek Mathambo. Together they created a very cool and haunting black and white video for Joy Division’s She’s Lost Control. The video was shot in Cape Town’s township of Langa and featured children from the local dance group Happy Feet.

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Formed in 2003 by Brad Hargett and JB Townsend in New York, this band is a glorious ‘Noise pop’ blend of Joy Division and Interpol, with a pleasant splattering of their own individuality. It’s my first port of call if I want to get stuck into a big drawing.

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Binary is a small four piece band from London who I managed to catch at a small gig not long ago. A great way to show that dark, post-punk is definitely not dead. With echoes of Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen, their spacey brand of music feels so familiar but fresh.

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The thing I spent a lot of time on recently was the LP for our latest album. I figured it would be really cool to make an LP that was very different. So I was lucky enough to pair up with JP from a company called Vertpixles, who’ve done LPs for Joy Division, Gorrilaz’s Plastic Beach and Grinderman, too.

I made this massive 30,000 x 30,000 size (that’s in pixels) image from hand-drawn images I had done, then built these crazy characters from combining scans on A4 pieces of paper. JP and I then went about figuring out how the layout would work, then JP and Vertpixels did the programming and brought it to life.

I’m pretty excited about it because you browse this massive constellation of crazy drawings I’ve done, each little section representing a song, and when you find the songs, they have all these hidden bonuses like videos from in the studio, lyrics, photos, and all sorts of stuff.

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I went to see the reincarnation of British indie band New Order (formerly Joy Division) in Manchester. Members of the band which wrote Blue Monday, True faith and Crystal were performing as their new band Bad Lieutenant. But they were blown away by support act The Mutineers, four local lads with an energy better then anything I’ve heard in years.

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I’m glad someone had the sense to create a stop-motion music video using Playmobil toys and Joy Division music. It’s the most unlikely of parings, but it works out amazingly. Just try not to smile while watching it.

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