raleigh_2854720k

Our favourite new music videos

UPSKIRTS: Open Yourself to the Sky

About to head off on tour, this cheekily titled band have released an awesome new music video to go with their latest single Open Yourself to the Sky, off their EP Barely Moving. Featuring gorgeous graphics, the film details the adventure of a little cosmonaut floating through space, as he encounters flamingo dragons, creepy hands holding space fox-owls and and golden woman. Upskirts’ message to stay open-minded and expand your boundaries works perfectly with the film’s intergalactic adventure. The lo-res, pixelated quality of the animation gives it a lovely old-school vibe. (PS – check out the Fave Tunes playlist they made for us).

Alison Wonderland: Take it to Reality ft. Safia

Coming off a string of fabulous sets at Splendour in the Grass and Lollapalooza, Alison Wonderland has just dropped a music video for Take It To Reality, her third single off recent album Run. The music video was filmed across the sold out Wonderland Warehouse Project 2.0, and features some gorgeous cinematography and lighting. Animated white lines flicker around people’s faces and hands, giving the clip a slightly Disclosure vibe. It really does make the warehouse parties look like they were an incredible spectacle – which admittedly, is not what we discovered when we headed to the Brisbane event.

Raleigh Ritchie: Bloodsport ’15

With competition ever growing between artists to be noticed online, they say the first few seconds of a music video are what really counts. Raleigh Ritchie gets that. The opening shots reveal a closeup of simmering bathwater. Slowly, ever so slowly, Ritchie’s beautiful head emerges. Hot Damn. It was one thing to enjoy him as Grey Worm in Game of Thrones, but this is something else.
After this point the music video really becomes like any other: the classic breakup story, Ritchie cutting up ex’s clothes and flushing her shoes down a toilet. It’s worth mentioning the adorable red beanie/creepy face mask at 3:00, though. Bloodsport’15 is a reworking of the same track that originally appeared on his 2013 EP Black and Blue. The new version features additional string components provided by Rosie Danvers and Wired Strings, a troop that have featured on tracks by Coldplay, Kanye West, Adele and heaps more.

Wells: Fractures

Sydney four-piece Wells have released a music video for their debut single Fractures from their EP The Pale King, and it is really quite creepy. The striking film simply features a man waking up in the desert and proceeding to start staggering towards the camera in slow motion. In the final moments of the song the perspective changes – we see that in fact, he’s been walking towards a woman who lies on the ground. The cinematography is stunning. The whole thing reminds me of the recent thriller It Follows(awesome movie, if you haven’t seen this go and watch it) in which the ‘haunting’ that is passed between people in the film manifests itself in the form of someone following you at walking pace.

tUnE-yArDs: Rocking Chair

tUnE-yArDs actually released their track Rocking Chair almost a year ago, as part of their Nikki Nack LP, but it feels just as warm and relevant today, released afresh with a new music video. Sarah Pupo lends cave-drawing like visuals to a song that is composed on simple, rich vocal harmonies. Such a beautiful song. The primary colours and use of light and shade give the primitive images a feeling of intense warmth and joy.

David Gilmour: Rattle that Lock

Continuing in the vein of awesome drawings and animation, the Pink Floyd legend has released a fucking monstrous new music video for Rattle that Lock. Based on the famous poem Paradise Lost, the music video required a team of 12 animators, artists and composers working around the clock for three months to bring all of its narrative and technical elements together. The result is spectacular, with an animated style that hints at gothic, Japanese anime and Greek mythology and featuring an incredible attention to detail, the music video explores a dark, mysterious world. A frightening black bird takes us from place to place, interacting with various creatures and monsters. Also incase it didn’t already feel trippy enough, that repeated sound that runs throughout is exactly the same as they play in the French railway system (fun fact). Rattle that Lock is the first track to be lifted from Gilmour’s latest album of the same name, so who knows what he’ll put out for his next song. Hopefully something even more ridiculous.

Earl Sweatshirt, Off Top

Recently in town for Splendour in the Grass and a run of sideshows, Earl Sweatshirt has released a fittingly gritty, animated video clip for off his album I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go OutsideThe bare track is set against a series of stark, scrappy cartoon scenes, mostly featuring Earl trying to run away and escape his demons. Trains, demonic creatures, flames and police vehicles all pose threat to the hellbent Earl – for a video less than two minutes long, it’s pretty damn disturbing. Earl has been vocal about his experience with mental illness, and this is a dark embodiment of his inner journey.

RÜFÜS, You Were Right

We’ve been waiting a long time for new RÜFÜS, and our prayers were answered in June when they released the delicate You Were Right. The clip now has an equally lovely clip, directed by KATZKI and produced by Marcus Butler. Gorgeous blue hues dominate the scenic landscape, which follows in a very similar vein to many of their previous clips. Each three band members (and later, a wide array of men, women and children) are featured in their own standalone scenes. Gradually, gravity gives way to each person, moods lift, feathers fly, and the wistful atmosphere becomes rather free, and joyous.

Youngs, Serasan Shakes

This is a really wonderful track from the Melbourne four-piece, and the clip is the perfect complement to the Andrei Eremin-mastered, Anna Laverty-produced single. The forlorn, sentimental track sings of lost love, and video perfectly encapsulates that feeling. Created by Sami Sommariva, who has worked with Flying Lotus, the beautiful scenes have a vintage feel and a demanding sense of nostalgia. Splashes of invigorating, flowery colour and band members painted in white are interspersed with a lonesome house and desk adorned in books and trinkets. It’s eerie to say the least, and only grows more and more surreal as it progresses.