The second track on Yannis and The Yaw’s album Lagos Paris London features the British capital very strongly in its music video. Rain Can’t Reach Us features Nigerian and French drummer, composer and songwriter Tony Allen.
A founding member of Afrobeat, he died in April 2020. In August, the EP he recorded with Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis was released.
Its video shows footage from many locations in central London. To begin with, we cross the Millennium Bridge over the Thames.
Then we approach St. Paul’s Cathedral, before entering what appears to be Liverpool Street’s Elizabeth line station. Its distinctive white walls are not easy to miss.
Next we’re in Canary Wharf – also at its Elizabeth line station – before watching people go up and down escalators at its huge shopping centre.
The video also includes footage from inside a London Overground train. This then arrives at London Paddington Station.
The music video also sees Yannis Philippakis standing in the middle of the Strand, with an 87 bus to Wandsworth on the right. Afterwards, the singer stands in what looks like Charing Cross Underground Station.
The Yannis and the Yaw account commented on their video on YouTube: “Rain Can’t Reach Us is one of my favorite pieces of music I’ve worked on. It’s like a dirty anthem… rough and rolling at the bottom, heavenly strings and arps up at the top It feels like it’s spinning in the middle of the two energies, right in the middle between Tony and I with Yaw spinning around us.
“If you could pinpoint the place where all our energies meet it would be here… if creativity had coordinates. @kit_montieth worked so hard on this video too, pulling all nighters and being chased from stations. He individually manipulated each frame of AI stop motion like it’s 25 per second He drove us to Dungeness & we had seafood in the desert God bless friendship & creativity.
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