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, of 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:
Tiny Little Houses: Soon We Won’t Exist
For some pretty sombre subject matter, the newest single from Melbourne quartet Tiny Little Houses has been partnered with a quirky cool video. Frontman Caleb Karvountzis opens the song with the line ‘How weird is it to think in 60 years we won’t exist’, a rumination on death that is as glaringly obvious as it is starkly terrifying. The lo-fi sound belies the morbid subject of the song, and the accompanying music video is niftily shot. It features the band trapped (although singer Caleb does find his way onto the street for the briefest of moments) jamming in a windowless, white room, all the while being broadcasted on static-saturated television sets.
It’s a great clip to a stomping number that pays homage to none-more-indie bands of yesteryear like Modest Mouse and Neutral Milk Hotel. The track is the latest off of their 2015 EP You Tore Out My Heart, a record we have thoroughly enjoyed this year.
Lea Porcelain – Loose Life
Keeping your gaze firmly planted on your shoes for this next one is Lea Porcelain, a duo out of Frankfurt, and the video for their latest single Loose Life. The track itself is brooding and intense, harsh synths dancing with an erratic beat and heavily filtered vocals, the whole thing is about the definition of off-beat but it builds up so beautifully.
The video absolutely grabbed the modern history nerd in me and shook him to life again, the track overlaid on footage of post-WWII Berlin. The footage was only uncovered recently by German director Konstantin von our Muhlen, who allowed the duo to use it in the making of this video. It’s visually confronting, the sheer wreckage and ruin juxtaposed with shots of smiling people trying to rebuild their shattered lives and surroundings. The song and clip walk hand in hand, utterly compelling.
Jones – Hoops
Heading across the pond to London for this next one with songstress Jones and her latest single Hoops. Having released her debut EP earlier in the year, this is a track from her forthcoming debut LP New Skin that’s set to drop later next year. There’s a lot of hype surrounding Jones and for good reason: she has a voice on her that will chill you to the bone. Mixing a funky electronic beat with her own soulful voice, the chorus of Hoops will hook you with a tonne of force.
The video keeps the focus squarely on Jones, it’s her voice in the driver’s seat after all. Professionally shot, making full use of mood lighting and confronting closeups, it’s a solid visual accompaniment to a track by a fantastic up and coming singer-songwriter out of the UK, an area producing them left right and centre.
SOAK – Reckless Behaviour
Taking a hop, skip and a jump from London to neighbouring Ireland, this next video comes from the youngest female nominee to be shortlisted for the prestigious Mercury Prize in seven years, Bridie Monds-Watson, known also as SOAK. The nomination in question was for her stunning debut album Before We Forgot How To Dream and the latest single to be given a music video from that album is Reckless Behaviour.
It’s a nifty little alt-pop number that is catchy as all hell. The video explores a wonderful friendship shared between two unlikely individuals, the craftiest old durry-choofing granny out there and a lonely young girl, both residents of a mental health facility. It’s a great story she and director Bob Gallagher manage to unfold in just north of three minutes, and it will warm your heart.
You can catch SOAK live when she tours Australia in the New Year, including appearances at the Falls and Southbound festivals.
Espa – Swan Song (ft. Giggs)
We flat out loved this track the first time we laid ears on it. Espa’s is the kind of voice that just stops traffic and Swan Song is such a consummately professional and mesmerisingly great track in every aspect. The subtle G-funk beat (courtesy of the production desk of Erick Arc Elliot of Flatbush Zombies), the super smooth baritone flow of hip hop legend Giggs. Did we mention that voice? Because it’s one of the better RnB voices we’ve heard in quite some time. Close your eyes and you’ll swear it’s Mary J. giving her best crack at the coolest James Bond theme you’re likely to hear.
The video of course lives up to all the expectations set by the original track, a lazy cool wander around a dimly lit house that just happens to have two fine musicians breaking up the gloom with their respective talents.
BUT DID WE MENTION THAT VOICE THOUGH??? Because damn. Espa just killing it every time.
BRNS – The Way Up
Sprawling, ambient, intense; the new single from Belgian multi-instrumentalist BRNS, titled The Way Up, is sublime. The track, clocking in at over six minutes, takes the static notion of genre and throws it right in the river. It’s an eclectic mash up of haunting falsetto vocals, jarring percussion, slow-burning guitars and weird little electronic noises, all blended together to forge a super cool soundscape and launching into the atmosphere with the crescendo.
The accompanying video is shot in beautiful black and white and explores a stark and lonely urban existence, rising and dipping with the ever-changing tempo of the song before going a mile a minute with fights and barking dogs to match an equally frenetic climax.
Stunning to put it simply.
Robyn & La Bagatelle Magique – Love Is Free (ft. Maluca)
Coming in with hands down the most fun film clip on the list this week are Robyn & La Bagatelle Magique, a trio out of Sweden with their debut single Love Is Free. The track is a throwback to 90s aerobics class anthems and is outrageously funky and up-tempo.
The video for the single is full of toothy grins, ceiling level energy, a man covered entirely in crimson lipstick, some fantastic dance moves between Robyn and featured artist Maluca and jumping on the bed. So much jumping on the bed. The whole thing, song and video, is just a barrel of fun that should have everyone cracking out the spandex and working up a sweat.
Hudson Mohawke – Indian Steps (ft. Antony)
Just shy of a trip down under for a headlining tour and a highly anticipated spot on the Laneway Festival bill, the trap lord with the Midas touch and an all-round great Scotsman, producer Hudson Mohawke, has dropped the video for his latest single Indian Steps.
Brooding and delicate juxtaposed with an intermittent gunshot backbeat, the track is absolutely haunting. The feature crooning from English singer-songwriter Antony anchors a song made for burning midnight oil to ever so fantastically. The music video is inspired by The Kiss, a sculpture by French sculptor Auguste Rodin, the scene evoking the timelessness of true love.
See you real soon, HudMo.