A Perfect Circle
aMOTION

THE REVIEW

Great expectations regarding the release of "aMOTION" are only partially met, despite this DVD-CD containing all the knowledge of Billy Howerdel and company.

In fact, it's hard to be impressed by such a product if, like me, you still can't take "Thirteenth Step" out of your player after three years. In any case, the box set contains nothing new, perhaps just some rare material. Indeed, it is a collection of their videos, with background commentary by Maynard or Billy, as you prefer, from the group's beginnings to the latest two more political ones ("Counting Bodies" and "Imagine") taken from eMOTIVe. A lot of space is dedicated to the amusing Bikini Bandits, who are the sexy protagonists of the video for "The Outsider", here in both edited and uncensored versions, and for "Thinking Of You", in which the protagonist and bandleader Heather is cleverly projected into the future of the story, even though the video is older.

A song like "Blue" is presented in a video four times by emerging directors, one of whom won the Contest and imagines a very romantic necrophiliac love story complete with corpse exhumation. One of the most interesting things is the live version of "The Noose", much more engrossing than on the record, with Maynard barely visible but sounding fantastic. Among the Bonuses, besides three Bikini Bandits Trailers, which are quite typical, there is an excellent photo gallery and a mini-documentary that is worth purchasing the DVD for those few minutes alone, filmed by the Band members themselves during the "Mer De Noms" and "Thirteenth Step" tours with their respective line-up changes. This video clip Part One is truly the highlight of the collection, with Maynard as Santa Claus and Clown, Jeordie White and James Iha inseparable and causing havoc, band rehearsals, promotions, behind-the-scenes, etc.; their fun is so evident it makes you want to start a band.

On the ‘rEMIXED’ CD, which will delight those who love Depeche Mode's single remix album, there isn’t much to say other than it consists simply of nine electronic reinterpretations of the singles made by some band members and other musicians like Massive Attack, with "The Hollow" sung and arranged by Paz standing out.

Overall, it is not a poorly done work; on the contrary, since it is clearly a "Best of" with a twist, it could be the starting point for those who are still unfamiliar with the band. However, I strongly recommend you go and buy the first two albums because only then will you understand what they have truly accomplished.