Blur, Ong Ong
The best thing about video games is that you get to play them. No one likes to be that person on the couch WITHOUT the controller, so when Blur released their new music video for Ong Ong, I was left feeling a little frustrated. The clip is composed like a Mario quest, albeit a littler whackier. It’s great fun to watch but there are moments when you feel like attacking the person next to you in order to have a play.
The best bit is probably that the actual band members dress up as video game characters in the opening. Graham Coxon creeps around as a cockroach, while Damon Albarn portrays a giant ice cream cone. It’s pretty great.
Lil Mama – The Sausage
Lil Mama has released a music video for her controversial new track The Sausage. I say controversial because Lil Mama based this latest track on the Sausage Freestyles. Watch here:
The #Sausagemovement was invented by the guy freestyling above, Miami student Matthew Bellamy. He claims to have invented the game in high school, during basketball practice. The sausage freestyle movement went viral, and when Lil Mama based her song on it Bellamy was not upset, he simply contacted her and asked if she would want to meet up and collaborate.
Initially she offered to fly him out to New York, but then snaked him over a $200 greyhound race. She also allegedly told Bellamy that she would not recieve any funds to make the music video, though it is obvious to anyone who watches it that serious funds have gone into camera equipment, costumes, dancers and even blocking off roads in New York to film. After watching the whole #Sausagemovement on youtube, it’s pretty hard to watch Lil Mama and not feel a bit cheated.
Sasha Go Hard – I’m a Threat
Sasha Go Hard took off earlier this year when she released her mixtape Nutty World 2. Now she’s released an understated music video for her latest single I’m a Threat, and it is incredibly powerful. The film is paired back, featuring the rapper in different parts of her neighbourhood, standing on gravel, in front of a car, near the park. The lack of visual stimulus gives us space to really listen to the artist and hear what she is saying. Her incredible vocals resound even stronger.
Lines like “Niggas ain’t shit, they be cutting up
You bitches no different, be slutting up
I bet I’ma threat, I’ma fuck ’em up”
Make Sasha Go Hard a female artist to watch out for.
KYTES – Inner Cinema
German band KYTES have released a lovely music video to go with their debut single Inner Cinema, which is due to officially come out on 15 June. Posing in front of various brightly coloured backgrounds, the band members jump around the stage with their instruments. The music video is no revelation, it is simple and refreshing. As is the young bands sound; a beautiful melding of indie pop and electronica. Singing, playing, and have an all round fab time, it’s hard not to be uplifted by these guys.
LoneLady – Hinterland
In celebration of her third successful single, Hinterland, LoneLady has released a music video that is warm, personal, and deeply intimate. Directed by Juliet Ellis, and featuring animation by Daniela Shearer, the music video documents an live performance. The camera is playful; shifting in and out of focus. Fuzzy stage lights cause the lens to glare now and then, and little animated shapes glide around the stage.
All in all the clip is reminiscent of those intimate live performances that really resonate with you. Where are right up close with the artist and the lights are in your eyes and wine has made everything a little fuzzy and a little more raw.
Maya Jane Coles– Believe
Now to one of the creepiest videos of the segment, we have Maya Jane Cole’s Believe, featuring Chelou. The music video is dark, brooding and a little confusing. Maya Jane Cole is performing under her other alias Nocturnal Sunshine. The lyrics are being sung by Chelou however, and in the music video these lyrics are being mouthed by a young girl. How’s that to get your head around?
Regardless, Cole has created another awesome conglomeration of dub, electro and a kind of mournful ballad. As the innocent girl in the music video struggles with the darkness inside her, it’s hard not to question with Cole has her own alter ego problems.