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:
MSTRKRFT – Runaway
Canadian electronic duo MSTRKRFT are releasing their first album in seven years with this week’s OPERATOR. Runaway is the latest single from that record, full of pulsating synths and dark grooves. The music video for it is an absolute cracker, featuring dancer Charlton Diaz cutting shapes all over downtown Toronto, limbs flying everywhere in perfect synchronicity with the track.
OPERATOR is out this Friday July 22nd via Warner Music.
Little May – Where Do You Sleep
Sydney outfit Little May have had a big 2016 on the back of their album For The Company. Where Do You Sleep is its latest single, soft and melancholic, with a slow-burning backbeat and the focus squarely on singer Hannah Field’s dreamy vocals. The video captures that dream-like quality perfectly, director Ears using a simple black and white shot and a fan to make the video’s subject appear as if she is floating in infinite blackness.
For The Company is out now via Dew Process/UMA. You can catch Little May at this year’s Splendour In The Grass.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra – First World Problem
Portland’s Unknown Mortal Orchestra have dropped their latest single, the standalone First World Problem. It’s jazzy and full of funky Latin rhythms and makes for some energetic RnB for the modern era. Listening to this makes you want to burst out into an impromptu dance. Speaking of dancing, the accompanying video features two contemporary dancers expressing their love (I think?) through the artform. The hazy desert they eventually end up in makes for some absolutely stunning shots as well.
Violent Soho – Blanket
Ahead of what promises to be an earth-shattering set at this year’s Splendour In The Grass, Mansfield legends Violent Soho have dropped the video for their latest single to come from their smash hit WACO album, Blanket. Featuring a rapid-fire indie riff and a chorus made to pogo along to in a moshpit, the song has quickly become a live favourite for Soho. The video attached has the boys jamming out in an empty hall, before it quickly fills up with fans losing their ever-loving shit at all the racket.
WACO is out now via I Oh You.
Thom Sonny Green – Palms
You probably know Thom Sonny Green from his main body of work as the drummer for Leeds rockers alt-J, but he’s also an accomplished solo artist in his own right, as plainly evident on his latest single Palms. It’s a mesmerising instrumental, gently cascading synths and a relaxed beat, it’s music to close your eyes and lose yourself in. The accompanying video is a relatively simple one, looking like an ultrasound image with waves of black and white flickering across the screen.
Palms is taken from Thom Sonny Green’s debut solo album High Anxiety, out August 19th on Sudden/Infectious.
Prof – Standout
Prof is repping Minneapolis, Minnesota in the rap game and doing it admirably. His latest single from his 2015 LP Liability is Standout, with production sounding like it was made on an old Casio and Prof flowing wildly over the top of it all. Speaking of wild, this video is utterly ridiculous. There’s too much going on to describe it adequately, but it’s a series of oddball non-sequiturs and sequences that make no sense but somehow do. It’s like watching a mental old Loony Tunes short. Just watch it and enjoy all the crazy.
Liability is out now via Rhymesayers.
Flyying Colours – It’s Tomorrow Now
Melbourne psych-rockers Flyying Colours have their debut album Mindfulness inbound after a pair of well-received EPs. It’s Tomorrow Now is the latest single taken from that record, a huge wall of grunge-y sound, crashing drums and big dirty riffs blending seamlessly with the hazy, droned out vocals of frontman Brodie Brummer. The music video complements the psych-grunge sound perfectly, dirty VCR level lo-fi of the band jamming out on an old box TV in a living room where nobody seems to be watching it.
Mindfulness is out September 23rd via Island.
Alex Cameron, The Comeback
Seekae frontman and solo artist Alex Cameron now releases the third single from his solo debut, Jumping the Shark. Following on from She’s Mine and Taking Care Of Business, The Comeback is another snippet from the concept album, which essentially sees Cameron take on the character of a once-adored pop star in his demise. The dimly lit video sees Cameron standing on stage in front of an empty theatre, singing about his experiences in show business, about how he used to be at the top, but now he’s lost his show and his fans. It’s a really entertaining clip – his spindly dance moves and the dramatic close ups add hyperbole and melodrama in all the right places.
Jumping The Shark comes out August 19 via Secretly Canadian / Inertia.
Image: Alex Cameron