Category: Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Nots Captures Our Current Dread and Unease

Cosmetic’s third and latest single “Inherently Low” is presciently and strangely fitting for our increasingly surreal times while continuing with the album’s overall theme. Sonically, the band pairs angular guitar and bass chords, propulsive drumming and shouted lyrics — and the end result is a song that evokes creeping dread and unease and while boldly and furiously calling out hypocritical bullshit. Simply put it’s a song with a narrator that simply has stopped giving a fuck.

The recently released video was created and edited by the band’s Natalie Hoffman and was influenced by the results of last week’s Presidential Election. And as Hoffman explains in press notes “the tension and fear that came with the results certainly played a part in the visual outcome of the video. America has elected someone who has openly campaigned to keep us low. To keep us completely divided. To keep us at war. I don’t think that I (or anyone) can fully process the weight of what is to come, but this video is an attempt to translate both what the song is about, and how I’ve felt since the election results – a new awareness, anger, and fear about being kept inherently low.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Swooning and Psychedelic Visuals for Boys Noize’s Equally Swooning and Urgent Single “2 Live”

Mayday’s latest single “2 Live” is an ecstatic and swooning, club banger which features layers of cascading and twinkling synths, tweeter and woofer rocker bass drops, propulsive and insistent beats are paired with a swooning and anthemic hook to create what may arguably be one of the Berlin-based producer’s most euphoric and lovelorn songs to date. Interestingly, the recently released music video, which continues Ridha’s ongoing collaborations with LIL INTERNET and SUSBOY follows a young couple as they explore the outskirts of Mexico City in the near future — and while the couple is desperately in love, the video explores what can happen when song love and virtual reality are combined. Ultimately, the result is a video that’s psychedelic and yet urgent.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Up-and-Coming London-based Band The Severed Limb’s New Single and Video Reveal a Decided Change in Sonic Direction

Building upon the buzz they’ve received, the sextet recorded their latest single “Bela Lugosi” on two-inch tape at the all analog Chuckalumba Studios in Dorset, UK, and interestingly their latest single is a decided change in sonic direction as the band which once used accordions, washboards and acoustic guitars have taken up a 60s garage rock-leaning sound, complete with a shuffling swagger as the band pair angular guitar chords, twisting and turning organ chords, and a propulsive backbeat. As the band explains in press notes about their evolution. “We didn’t want to associated with bands at festivals, who wear waistcoats, so you mutate and survive.”

The recently released music video features footage of the band playing in front of cool lighting displays and cuts in between with classic and found footage from classic horror movies — some including a few movies that featured Bela Lugosi, himself.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Psychedelic Visuals for Plague Vendor’s Punchy and Anthemic “ISUA”

Much like the material on Free to Eat, the material off their latest effort Blooddsweat is comprised of material that had been written, revised, road-tested, further revised and re-imagined before the members of the quarter went into the studio. Produced and engineered by Stuart Sikes, best known for his work with The Walkman, Cat Power and Modest Mouse, Sikes encouraged the band to embrace a minimalist production with each member aiming to capture each track, each note in as a few takes as humanly possible and with little to no overdubs. Ultimately, the intent was to have their recorded sound hew as closely as possible to their live sound. Interestingly, Bloodsweat thematically is inspired by the last couple of years of each bandmember’s life, and the dedication and sacrifices being a serious artist must make and how that’s influenced them as a band as people. And when you listen to tracks on the album, it’s evident that their sound has grown, it’s also evident that their sound is still subtly influenced by At the Drive-In, Liars, The Cramps and others.

The album’s first single “ISUA (I Stay Up Anyway)” is an anthemic and punchy bit of punk rock with a furiously insistent bass line and a forceful stomp — and it’s the sort of single you can practically picture concertgoers in a small, dark and sweaty room yelling aloud to with upraised beers.

The recently released video features footage of the band playing a live gig but set in wild, psychedelic negatives — that almost makes it seem like going to a Plague Vendor show would be a trippy experience.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Introducing the Noisy, Alt-Rock-Inspired Sounds of Amsterdam’s Canshaker Pi

With the release of the “Shaniqua” and “Looking For Love On Ibiza” 7 inch single and their Boomslang and For Ed EPs, the Amsterdam-based indie rock quartet Canshaker Pi — comprised of Willem Smit (vocals, guitar), Boris de Klerk (vocals, guitars), Ruben van Weegberg (bass) and Nick Bolland (drums) — have received a reputation across the Netherlands and elsewhere fro a frenzied live show consisting of swaggering and noisy rock that mischievously draws from a variety of sources. Their For Ed EP is a tongue in cheek references to survival-expert Ed Stafford, while “Shaniqua” references a line in Outkast’s smash-hit single “Hey Ya!” — and as a result of their rapidly growing profile, the Dutch quartet caught the attention of Pavement’s and Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks’ Steven Malkmus, who co-produced the Dutch’s quartet soon-to-be-releaed full-length debut Naked Flowers.

Naked Flowers’ latest single “Bonox” finds the band pairing anthemic hooks with shimmering yet tense and angular guitar chords, four-on-the-floor-like drumming, a propulsive bass line and Smit’s ironically detached vocals to craft a song that manages to sound as though it were indebted to 90s alt rock, post-punk and Brit Pop simultaneously — but with a mischievousness at its core.

The recently released music video features time-lapse footage of a painter creating a painting to the song — including brief moments to smoke cigarettes and daydream, a lot of precise mixing of pigments and actual painting and making sure that every little detail was precise to how he had initially envisioned and what he envisioned what it was supposed to be.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Furious Visuals and Sounds of Dangers’ “Kiss with Spit”

Interestingly, Dangers’ blistering and snarling latest single “Kiss With Spit” has the band pairing layers of scuzzy and acidic guitar chords, thundering drumming, a persistent bass line and howled vocals in a way that sounds reminiscent of Melvins, Metz and Nirvana — in particular, think of “Dive,” “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter” and “Breed,” complete with a tense, mosh pit worthy fury. And recently after playing the song after the strangeness of a President-elect Donald Trump, the song conveyed the blind and confused fury that many of us feel.

The recently released music video follows a vicious, disjointed, sweaty mosh pit in a dark, tiny little shithole of a club — and in some way it also looks like a fucked up orgy with a band leading it on.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Thoughtful and Gorgeous Sounds and Visuals of MOTSTA’s “Petrichor” featuring Sophie Lindinger

Dittrich’s latest single and EP title track “Petrichor” is a gorgeous and moody production in which Sophie Lindinger’s breathily ethereal and aching vocals are paired with a contemporary and slick production consisting of twinkling keys, layers of shimmering and buzzing synths, ominously swirling electronics, stuttering yet tweeter and woofer-rattling beats and a distorted vocal sample and reveals that the Russian-Austrian-based producer and artist has been experimenting with his compositional approach and his sound to incorporate organic instrumentation. And the result is a song that feels and sounds stately and cinematic while being dance floor ready — and interestingly enough manages to channel Octo Octa’s Between Two Selves and the aforementioned Bonobo, but wth a bracing, winter chill.

The recently released music video is a fittingly cinematic video that features footage of Lindinger pensively singing the song while looking out towards a rainy, cloud and fog strewn day; the sort of grey that envelops its environment; simultaneously, we view Dittrich walking around, day dreaming — all in situations in which men are felt to feel small and insignificant.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Trippy and Hypnotic Sounds and Visuals of Bonobo’s “Kerala”

January 13, 2017 will mark the release of Green’s sixth Bonobo effort Migration, and his first full-length release in four years. Fittingly as Green mentions in press notes, the material thematically speaking focuses on migration. “It’’s interesting how one person will take an influence from one part of the world and move with that influence and effect another part of the world. Over time, the identities of places evolve,” the renowned British producer and electronic music artist remarks in press notes. With that in mind, it shouldn’t be terribly surprising that the material possesses a transitory nature — some of the material, including the album’s first single “Kerala” was initially composed while on the road and then was road-tested and revised during Stateside DJ sets. And the album’s guest spots feature a number of artists, who have emigrated themselves, including Canadian-born, Los Angeles-based vocalist Michael Milosh of Los Angeles-based indie pop act Rhye, who recorded his vocal tracks while in Berlin, Germany; Australian-born, Brooklyn-based global, indie pop sensation Nick Murphy, formerly known as Chet Faker, who bonded with the British producer over a shared love of disco; Florida-born, Los Angeles-based Nicole Miglis of Los Angeles-based act Hundred Waters; and the New York-based Moroccan collective Innov Gnawa among others. Adding to the album’s transitory nature, Green also employs the use of found sounds that include a Hong Kong elevator, rainfall in Seattle, an Atlanta-based tumble dryer and a New Orleans fan boat engine.

As for “Kerala,” the single manages to further cement elements of Green’s signature sound while expanding upon it as shuffling and skittering 808s are paired with gorgeous yet arpeggiated and knotted strings. And the song builds up until Green drops a cut and layered vocal sample from Brandy that gives the composition a bit of soulfulness and swooning euphoria while possessing a shimmering and cinematic quality.

Directed by video collective Bison, who has produced videos for Jon Hopkins, London Grammar and Rosie Lowe and starring Gemma Arterton, the video compliments the shuffling and trippy nature of the song by creating slowly staggered looped effects in which Arterton is haunted by both terrors unseen by everyone else around her — until the camera pulls out to see an unidentified flying object hovering at the horizon.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Gorgeously Mournful Yet Hopeful Sound and Visuals of Daniel Land’s “New York Boogie-Woogie”

Written and recorded in a number of locations including London, Manchester, Devon, California and New York City and featuring over 20 musicians including members of Daniel Land and The Modern Painters, the backing bands of Andrew Saks (a.k.a. ASAKS) and Gerald Hopes (a.k.a Little Nova Sound), members of Land’s current band and ambient composer Bing Satellites, who co-wrote some material, co-produced and played several instruments on the record, Land’s forthcoming sophomore full-length solo album In Love With a Ghost may arguably be one of the more complex and textured efforts he has released.

Interestingly enough, the album’s material was written right after his longest running project Daniel Land and The Modern Painters had broken up, and in a period in which he had been forced to consider giving up music about halfway during the recording of the album, when he had suffered a number of health issues including a painful and chronic inner-ear infection that left him prone to bouts of extreme dizziness and partially deaf for over a year. And as a result, among several things Land had been thinking of during tat period influenced the tone and feel of his forthcoming album’s material. As Land explains in press notes: “This is an album about cities. It is an album about reinvention, and starting your life over. It is an album about growing up, finding love, and settling down. And to a lesser degree, it is about the damage that can be done to a person, or a family, by falling in love with the wrong person. With ‘In Love With A Ghost’, I came full circle for a while by incorporating a whole bunch of influences that pre-date my love of dream-pop and shoegaze. I really wanted to make a colourful, widescreen, detailed record. When I started the album, I didn’t have a live band, and most of the tracks were written on the piano, for my own amusement, rather than for a group with three guitarists.

“Unable to make music, and living in a new city made me feel, at times, powerfully depressed. This became a crisis of confidence that went very deep and it did seem, for a while, that I would never find my way back to making music again, ” Land continues. “Finishing the album was a process that involved re-evaluating my life and overhauling my relationship to music, and coming out of the other side more healthy, more humble, and more grateful. It’s good to be back again.”

And while possessing a mournful air about what was and what can never, be the album’s first single “New York Boogie-Woogie” manages to also simultaneously possess a hopefulness towards the future — with the recognition that things constantly change, and that you better respect and cherish that. Sonically speaking, Land’s plaintive falsetto vocals are paired with dramatic piano chords, propulsive drumming, shimmering guitar chords and a gorgeous sax solo to craft a song that possesses a cinematic yet moody sweep.

The recently released music video for the song features black and white footage in and around New York that captures a sense of endless wonder and possibility and profound loneliness.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Halifax, Nova Scotia’s Kestrels Return with Another 90s Alt Rock-Channeling Single Paired with Slick Visuals

Interestingly, the Canadian trio’s self-titled effort’s third and latest single “Descent of Their Last End” continues on a similar vein as “No Alternative,” as it’s an anthemic bit of buzzing shoegaze that sounds as though it could have been released in 1993. We’re talking about buzzing power chords, thundering drumming and a propulsive groove that you can mosh to in a sweaty club — but with a hint of what sounds like synths that act like bookends to the song.

The recently released video is comprised of a TV siting in a middle of an urban street, and a suburban back yard with projections of weird psychedelic-like footage in empty rooms, suburban yards and slick split screens.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Surreal Visuals and Swaggering, Hyper-Futuristic Sounds of Bonzai’s “I Did”

As you’ll hear on “I Did,” the latest single off Lunacy pairs Mura Masa’s swaggering futuristic and incredibly unique production style comprised of industrial clang and clatter, stuttering and skittering beats, staccato cascades of hot, neon synths with Bonzai’s swaggering, self-assured vocal style, which nods at a young Missy Elliot. As the Irish pop artist explains “I wrote ‘I Did’ about some people I felt were jealous of me and I what I was doing cause they think they’re better than me and you know that might be true but I did something with myself and they did not.” She later explains on the incredibly technicolor and psychedelic animated video directed by Tom Bunker, which features Bonzai’s cartoon avatar running through a surreal, dream-like jungle, “the video is meant to depict a journey to success, the tree being the tough climb to the top and the voyage through space at the end being the sweet victory.”

As the video’s producer Tom Bunker adds “The original idea for the video came out of a discussion illustrator Pete Sharp and I had with Cassia [a.k.a. Bonzai) about the track It follows themes that Bonzai puts across in the track about progression in life and moving away from negativity, which could be resentment from your peers or a giant smoke monster that lives in a log. It’s a pretty relatable struggle either way. For the jungle sequences, a lot of the plant and wildlife were a mishmash of different fruits and flowers which Pete took from old Botanical drawings and references of exotic animals.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Scavenger Hunt’s “Stranger Things” and 80s Pop Inspired Sounds and Visuals for “Never Enough”

If you’ve been frequenting this site, you may recall that I wrote about “River Runs Dry,” a single off the duo’s soon to be released Shapes and Outlines EP — and that particular single found the band managing to mesh anthemic and swooning 80s-inspired synth pop with a slick, contemporary production with Lamoureaux’s sultry pop-star belter vocals. The EP’s latest single “Never Enough” is a mid-tempo bit of anthemic synth pop that sounds as though it were inspired by the likes of contemporary acts like St. Lucia and others, thanks in part to the use of chiming percussion that emphasizes the song’s hook, sinuous bass line, some Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar. Of course, I think the single will help to further cement the duo’s burgeoning reputation for crafting slick, anthemic and radio friendly electro pop with an heartfelt and swooning earnestness.

The recently released music video draws influence from both the hit Netflix show Stranger Things and from MTV-era pop videos but with an equally slick production and visual value.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Terry Malts’ Mournful Yet Radio-Friendly New Single

Over the past couple of months I’ve written about Party’s first two singles “Seen Everything,” and “Used To Be,” which both revealed a professional studio polish while retaining the band’s uncanny penchant for crafting infectious and catchy hooks while thematically the album’s first two singles possess a bittersweet and wistful nostalgia over the thing that have and will continue to change but a burgeoning Zen-like acceptance of the impermanence of all things. But they do so with a radio-friendly, power pop-inspired sound. The album’s third and latest single “Gentle Eyes” continues in a similar vein and while sounding as though it were drawing from classic power pop, the song also sounds as though it draws from early New Wave — in particular, early New Order. However, lyrically the song deals more directly with the end of a romantic relationship, in which the song’s narrator admits his role in the breakup and how his former lover’s ghost lingers everywhere for him.

The recently released video employs a very simple concept. Shot in a slightly purplish, black and white tint, the video features the band perfuming the song in a darkened studio, which emphasizes the loneliness and ache at the heart of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Russian Indie Rock Band Return with Brooding Yet Swooning New Single and Visuals

Much like it’s preceding single “Tell Me,” Dialogue’s latest single “By Your Side” is an moodily atmospheric single consisting of twinkling and shimmering synths, swirling electronics, four-on-the-floor drumming, brief blasts of plucked guitar chords and earnest and plaintive baritone in a swooning proclamation of love and devotion while further cementing their reputation for crafting material that sounds indebted to the classic 4AD Records sound.

The recently released video features fittingly moody and brooding visuals including the band preparing to record and record in a darkened studio, members of the band walking around their town and some of its quieter and lovelier sights and so on.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: clipping’s Vicious Anti-Donald Trump Diss Track “Fat Fingers”

Recently, the trio participated in the 30 Songs, 30 Days project, contributing a vicious and scathing anti-Donald Trump diss track “Fat Fingers” in which Diggs references Nas’ legendary diss track “Ether” and the Canadian anthem “O, Canada” to a sparse yet forcefully minimalist production featuring a sample of people whislting the melody of the Canadian anthem, boom bap-beats, industrial clang and clatter. Fuck Donald Trump and everything about him and his family!