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:
Xiu Xiu – Into The Night
Kicking off with the San Jose grown experimental noise pop trio Xiu Xiu and their enormous new single Into The Night. With their twelfth studio album Xiu Xiu Plays The Music Of Twin Peaks arriving today, an album that, you guessed it, sees the trio covering music from the Twin Peaks soundtrack. A challenging project given the show’s manically cult following.
At a gigantic 12-and-a-half minutes, it’s a sprawling opus of distorted noise and crosses the threshold of a litany of genres, making for some gripping listening. The video, directed by Diego Barrera, explores the creation of the alchemical siren, a union between masculinity and femininity. The visuals are like a confronting dream and are very open to interpretation, best to watch for yourself to get the best understanding.
Xiu Xiu Plays The Music Of Twin Peaks is out now via Polyvinyl.
Gonzo Jones – Misty Dreams
The latest Good Manners Records signee is Gonzo Jones and Misty Dreams is his debut single. Hailing from Cape Liptrap in Victoria, the singer-songwriter has kicked off his career with a beautifully melodic, cloud-soft rock tune in the vein of Mac DeMarco. Some of the easiest and breeziest listening you will do all this week.
The accompanying video is a sepia-tinged road trip in a Mustang convertible through sand and scrub, the late-60’s aesthetics striking. As auspicious a debut as they come, we’re looking forward to some very big things from Gonzo Jones.
Mitski – Your Best American Girl
Popping over to Brooklyn next with the latest single from singer-songwriter Mitski. Part of the lead-up to her fourth studio album Puberty 2, she has released Your Best American Girl with its video this week and the results are pretty much stunning. Soothing vocals over a gently strummed acoustic guitar, before the amps turn on and the drums crash around grungy riffs and Mitski’s vocals lifting off. It will reach down as far into you as it can in pushing your emotional buttons, side effects include goosebumps.
The video is equally as striking, a young couple exchanging a passionate kiss with each other juxtaposed with Mitski having an equally as passionate exchange with her hand. It’s a metaphor for, as a Japanese American girl, not quite fitting in in white America.
Puberty 2 is out June 17th on Dead Oceans via Inertia.
SilentJay x Jace XL – Rockabye
Joining forces once again on this next one are producer-singer tag team Silentjay and Jace XL. Part of the Hiatus Kaiyote ensemble, their newest track is Rockabye; a track full of soft RnB melodies, shimmering production and the soulful vocals of Jace XL weaving the narrative. Late night bedroom listening at its finest, this is a song that will warm you up with colder months ahead.
The video is as sensual as the song itself, a tender love story covered in a haze of smoke and lights both warm and inviting and the neon of the nightlife. Rockabye is part of the lead-up to the duo’s forthcoming debut EP but this is a pair that definitely needs to stick together.
Sacrifice is out next Monday April 18th via Rhythm Section.
Noonie Bao – Reminds Me
Lauded as one of pop’s greatest hidden talents (though we’re not sure how hidden you can possibly be when you’ve been nominated for a Grammy Award) is Stockholm’s Noonie Bao. Reminds Me is her latest single, a track that begins off-kilter with dreamy verses delivered like lymerics before building to a chorus that takes flight. Haunting and frantic, it’s easy to see why people rave about Noonie Bao.
The video, directed by Sebastian Mlynarski and shot in Death Valley in California is gorgeously picturesque, a collage of cut and pasted shots with the chorus finding her running across a desert highway in and out of the moonlight particularly striking.
Noonie Bao’s latest EP Noonia is out now via 2ManyFreckles.
Ash Koosha – Mudafossil
London producer Ash Koosha has a brand new single this week. Mudafossil premiered on Adult Swim on the weekend just gone. Distorted and ambitious, the track features Eastern instrumentals and production that is as warped and fluid as the accompanying visuals.
Yes this video is a trip. We’ve seen quite a number of CGI-based videos popping up lately, but this one takes the cake as far as sheer trippiness goes. Conveying the overarching themes of his album I AKA I, the video merges the human body with technology using rippling, pulsating effects. Just watch and absorb yourself.
I AKA I is out now on Ninja Tune via Inertia.
Bibio – Light Up The Sky
Next up is another English producer in Bibio and his latest single Light Up The Sky. A track that begins with big piano chords and 80s-style synths, it quickly melds into almost dripping tap percussion and some ethereal falsetto vocals. The video is a rainbow of colours and lights, a live performance with a twist with microscopic mineral imagery projected onto the instruments to breathtaking effect.
The effort and love put forth into this video cannot be understated, shot in three days and edited meticulously. It’s another stellar track from Bibio’s latest record A Mineral Love; out now on Warp Records via Inertia.
Kate Martin – Kintsukuroi
Back home for this next video, with Melbourne-via-Townsville singer-songwriter Kate Martin and her first single since 2013’s Awaken in the brilliant Kintsukuroi. Textured, beautifully layered with gentle guitars slithering across the track and rich, gentle vocals anchoring it all. The song crashes like a roiling wave in its crescendo.
The video is simple but effective, featuring Kate twirling in the darkness and playing her guitar, the focus solely on her as it should be. With a third studio album, Set My Life To Fire, on its way in Autumn of this year, amazingly prolific for an artist only 24 years of age, this is a very encouraging sign of things to come.
Catch Kate Martin on her Kintsukuroi single launch in May and June.
Elizabeth Rose – Playing With Fire (ft. REMI)
Interactive music videos are catching fire in 2016, and Elizabeth Rose has teamed up with the good people at Google Play in crafting one of her own for her latest single Playing With Fire from her huge debut LP INTRA. The song mixes modern day trap beats with melodies and production that harken all the way back to the pop music that was commanding the charts in the late 90s and early 00s. REMI stops by to drop a hard-hitting verse to add a lot of extra depth.
We won’t spoil the fun for you, but you can literally play with fire (and apparently Elizabeth Rose’s own emotions) by going to https://www.elizabethrose.com.au/play/
INTRA is out now via Midnight Feature/Inertia
City Calm Down – Your Fix
One of 2015’s biggest breakout stories were City Calm Down. Releasing their Bibically-proportioned album In A Restless House and enjoying lauded spots on festivals and headline tours around Australia. They’ve not shown any sign of slowing down in 2016, just announced for Splendour, currently on an all-but-sold-out headline tour of Australia and this week releasing the video for one of In A Restless House’s standouts in Your Fix.
It’s a New Wave belter, driving synths and guitars over frontman Jack Bourke’s Robert Smith-reminiscent vocals. The video is awash in neon pinks and blues, the band playing the song on a rotating Lazy Susan stage and somehow not looking the slightest bit dizzy. Great stuff from one of Australia’s best bands going.
In A Restless House is out now via I Oh You. Catch City Calm Down on their In A Restless House tour now.