It’s video roundup time! Once again, Howl And Echoes are coming in hot with the freshest, most eyeball-stimulating music videos to be dropped by the artists you love and some of the artists you don’t know you love yet this week. We do all the dirty work and herd them all into one convenient web-based location for you to enjoy every Friday so that you don’t have to. Have yourself a good old gander at the latest offerings from:
Pumarosa – Cecile
Kicking off with a fresh act from London in quintet Pumarosa. They’ve been turning heads since releasing debut single Priestess and they’re following it up with Cecile. The opening canters along like a thoroughbred before dialing back to some early-80s funk grooves, shades of Blondie everywhere.
The video is a trip too, shadowy and frantic and featuring some interesting use of a VR headset to blur the lines between reality and fantasy. There’s plenty of vibrant colours and hypnotic shapes to keep even the most discriminating eyeballs entertained and it complements the vibe and sound of the song beautifully.
If you’re in Brighton this month then I hate you but also you can catch Pumarosa at The Great Escape.
Young Magic – Default Memory
New York duo Young Magic are having a whopper of a week, releasing their third album Still Life only today and dropping a brand new single and video to boot. Default Memory is the name, a devilishly good and positively ethereal dream pop number that makes for listening of the easiest kind, the zenith of the song and its outro are positively mesmerising.
The video will ensnare you too, all manner of reflective shapes twisting and warping at the fore of some stunning scenic backgrounds, it’s like the kind of screensavers you could do nothing but sit and stare at for hours on end.
Still Life is out now via Carpark Records/Smooch Records.
Nearly Oratorio – Tin
Nearly Oratorio, known by day as Simon Lam, has been receiving plaudits across the board for his recent Tin EP, he has this week given us a bit more of an insight into the making of the song with the release of a live video from the vault.
Going back to 2013, it’s a lo-fi live performance from the living room. Stunningly layered, with a backbeat reminiscent of wine glasses clinking, it builds methodically, guided by Lam’s ghostly vocals before the atmosphere changes to resemble a thunderstorm rolling in. It’s synth pop of the cleverest variety and its unique blend of noise will hook you immediately.
Tin is out now via Solitaire Recordings
sir Was – Falcon
Popping into an often-overlooked part of the world in our video roundups in Sweden for this next one from Gothenburg multi-instrumentalist sir Was. Falcon is the name, a darkly jazzy number with almost reggae vocals delivered in hip-hop fashion. It sounds like a combination that just shouldn’t work but it does so goddamn well here it’s infectious, especially that chorus.
The video is dark and gloomy, sir Was delivering his lyrics mic in hand in an armchair in a dank looking marsh somewhere. The dour sky of those shots is juxtaposed with some breathtaking sunsets as well so it isn’t all doom and gloom. A very effective outing here.
Falcon will be on sir Was’ debut EP Says Hi, out June 3rd via City Slang.
Julianna Barwick – Same
From Sweden back to New York and the borough of Brooklyn with experimental songstress Julianna Barwick and her brand new single Same. Celestial rising synths and hazy reverberating choral vocals that swirl around it all are the backbone. Soft but relentless, the result is felt almost in the pit of your stomach, uplifting yet anguished at the same time. It’s quite surreal.
The accompanying video mirrors the feeling, Barwick crawling through dead leaves into a school building where a guy holding a frenetic locker room training session and a well-dressed but almost catatonic older lady are traipsing the halls. It’s these almost normal images offset by just a hint of oddness that give this video such a realistic dreamlike quality. The ending is one of those scenes you can’t stop imagining no matter how much you close your eyes.
New album Will is out now via Dead Oceans.
Dune Rats – Bullshit
Fresh off of blowing us all to pieces on the opening leg of Violent Soho‘s WACO tour are Brisbane lords Dune Rats, who have this week released the video for their brand new single Bullshit. It received nothing short of an ovation at one of its first live outings on Tuesday night and it’s easy to see why, sludgy punk chords and snotty, highly relatable lyrics with a sing-along chorus make for a heck of a belter.
The video was shot in Byron Bay and looked like the most fun anyone has ever had, full of tinnies, tattoos and death-defying stunts on two wheels plus what looked like a ripper Dunies set to top it all off, the giant bong costume should be a hit this Halloween.
Say what you will about Dune Rats, they know how to party and we’re looking forward to their new record like there’s no tomorrow.
King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard – People-Vultures
With the latest album in their outrageously prolific career in the books in Nonagon Infinity, national treasures King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard have released their latest fever dream of a video to come from that record for People-Vultures.
Slowly building into the kind of frantic and above all else loud rock and roll noise King Gizz are renowned for, it’s an absolute stomper. If you were wondering what the heck that giant egg at the end of their Gamma Knife video, it totally hatches into a giant, six-legged nightmare vulture given movement by the band themselves and that must be stopped at all costs. It’s probably better than half of the old Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers episodes you remember as a kid so just watch and enjoy. It’s astounding the amount of effort King Gizzard put into everything they do, we are all better for it.
Catch King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard in face-melting live form on their just announced their Nonagon Infinity tour of Australia!
Client Liaison – World Of Our Love
Wrapping up this week’s outing are Melbourne’s finest vintage late 80s-early 90s synth pop troubadours in Client Liaison and their first single of 2016 in the remarkable World Of Our Love.
This is the kind of tune aerobics classes were made for, full of pulsating synths and a beat that just dares you to try and keep your hips stationary. It is so goddamn uplifting it’s almost painful and I’m still lost for words at the saxophone snaking its way in there towards the end. The video is just as good, opting for pastel-coloured animated adventure this time around. This is every bit the Client Liaison aesthetic we’ve come to know and love (the ‘Not A Knife’ and ‘A Knife’ framed on the walls in the background at one point and the pavlova on the barbie had me in tears among many other things you’ll have to see for yourself).
God bless Client Liaison for being somehow more Australian kitsch than a Who Dares Wins/early-days Getaway marathon. Their next record cannot come soon enough.
Image: Music Feeds