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:
Holy Balm – Fashion
Kicking off this week with Sydney three-piece Holy Balm and their new video for single Fashion. Featuring a driving synth and breezy vocals that harken back to some of the best new wave from the early 80s, including a scuttling little sax that kicks in around the halfway mark (and I am all for more saxophone in modern music!).
The video is a whole lot of fun, taking the title and running with it showcasing all kinds of off the wall outfits and funky colours that capture the particular era Fashion is inspired by just magnificently.
You’ll be able to find Fashion on Holy Balm’s debut album Activity.
Getter – Forget It (ft. Oliver Tree)
To San Jose next and the new video for Getter’s latest single Forget It. Taken from his Radical Dude! EP, it’s a pulsating electronic track that drives along methodically with pulsating synths before falling away beautifully and placing the focus on the vocals at its conclusion.
The video, directed by Liam Underwood, follows a heartbroken young scientist attempting to bring his recently deceased girlfriend back to life through the risky means of cloning. Stunningly shot, it’s both heartwarming and heartbreaking at the very same time.
Radical Dude is out now on OWSLA.
Cleopold – Not Coming Down
Melbourne’s Cleopold has been compared to such luminaries as Chet Faker, Bon Iver and Jack Garratt, and it’s easy to see why listening to his new single Not Coming Down. Taken from his debut Altitude & Oxygen EP, Not Coming Down is modern soul of the finest calibre, Cleopold’s voice strong over the verses and absolutely soaring over a funky chorus that grabs you by the collar. The synth solo that plays the song out is a mind-bender.
The video, co-directed between Cleopold and Peter Ryle, is actually not really a video in the traditional sense, rather it’s over 10 000 individual images shot with rapid photography combined into a video. Those shots feature Cleopold and his band jamming the track a mood-lit club replete with disco ball. Yet another fantastic talent out of Australia, always great to see.
Altitude & Oxygen is out now via Detail Records and Create/Control. You can catch Cleopold live when he tours Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide in August.
MANE – Bitter
Just across the border and into Adelaide for this next one from songstress MANE. Her latest single in the lead-up to the release of her debut EP House Of Horror this week is the wonderful combination electro-blues of Bitter. MANE has a very unique delivery and vocal style amongst her contemporaries, and she molds this intriguing soundscape to fit her voice so well.
The video looks aesthetically like the opening credits of a Bond movie, the almost menacing vibe of the song lending it a further dangerous edge, MANE both looking and sounding like a lady not to be fucked with at all.
House Of Horror is up for purchase on iTunes and streaming on Spotify today! Catch MANE on tour in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney in mid-July.
Scarecrow – Shake It
Heading to a region we rarely cover in these roundups in France with Toulouse quartet Scarecrow. They’re another act who amalgamate the blues with a modern genre, this time hip-hop. Their latest single and video is for the ear-grabbing Shake It.
I have no idea what their MC Antibiotik Daw is spitting, his lyrics all in rapid fire French but nonetheless sounding great (as anything in that language usually does). Singer Slim Paul absolutely nails it, his guttural, soulful vocals booming out over a brassy chorus. The video sees our female protagonist slightly losing it in the kitchen, trying to cook up a storm but ending up just making a horrid mess everywhere.
If The Roots can make it work, so can Scarecrow, so look out for more from these multi-talents in the near future.
Seratones – Chandelier
Louisiana blues rockers Seratones have been making some waves around the United States recently, and if their latest single and video for Chandelier is anything to go by, they’ll be making a lot more very soon. It comes from their debut album Get Gone and it’s an absolute stomper. Big bluesy riffs just crunching behind frontwoman AJ Haynes’ belting set of pipes. Swagger is in abundance, even as it burns slow across the chorus. The jangly classic rock guitar solo punctuating Chandelier is an absolute treat.
The video finds Seratones jamming the track out in a dimly-lit garage, belying the song’s raw energy with a lot of robotic movements. It’s entertaining nonetheless and these guys have all the talent in the world to be huge.
Get Gone is out now on Fat Possum via Inertia.
Tourist – Too Late
UK producer Tourist has been keeping busy this year. After winning a Grammy for co-writing the Song Of The Year (Sam Smith’s Stay With Me), he dropped his debut album U, which shot to #1 on iTunes’ electronic charts. His latest single from that record is Too Late, a three minute slice of modern electonic. The backbeat bangs behind a skyrocketing synth and alternating deep and high vocals. The kind of tune summer festival-goers lose their ever-loving shit to.
The video finds Tourist performing in a vibrant club, looking positively lonely and introspective amidst all the raw noise. There is as much colour as there is sound, bringing the energy of the song to fever pitch.
U is out now on Monday Records. Tourist is touring Australia in late August but it has already sold out!
Klangstof – Hostage
Wrapping up with some calming indie from Norway in Klangstof. Having freshly signed to Mind Of A Genius, the multi-instrumentalist has quickly released a trio of songs, Hostage the first of them to get the video treatment. The track is gorgeous, some sparkly plucked guitar over a soothing soundscape of synths and vocals that threaten to lull you into a deep sleep. The crescendo of this song will leave a lump in your throat, simply breathtaking.
The video is a little less inviting, following the trail of a protagonist through a stark-looking Scandinavian forest featuring shit-losing and tree-punching. It will either make you want a winter holiday in Europe or be glad to be rugged up somewhere warm listening to Klangstof.
We can’t wait for more.
Image: Getter/Supplied