Music Videos

We’ve raved before about the visual work of San Francisco graphic designer and ambient electronic musician Tycho, aka Scott Hansen — but how exciting that similarly-styled graphic designer and director Charles Bergquist has now been enlisted to turn both of their still image styles into moving image! Both Bergquist and Hansen are known visually for their use of overlaid imagery and washed out colors, and the video for “Ascension” possesses all of these elements. But unlike any hand-held video edited together by any ol’ dream pop band with a penchant for Polaroid dreaminess, this is a well-executed, high-quality visual treat that feels pulled straight out of a fashion magazine universe. It also incorporates the best of both Bergquist and Hansen’s [...]

REDEFINE magazine and Holocene host FANTASTIC BABY: The Opulent Kingdom of Contemporary K-Pop, a K-Pop music videos gallery and discussion panel on the following topics:
- Repeated motifs and common techniques in filming contemporary K-pop videos: a technical analysis
- The rise of colossally sized K-pop idol groups with 10+ members
- Eroding social conservatism and subverting gender norms in Korean culture through pop music and imagery.

As a true multimedia art installation, Jerusalem In My Heart are a sight to behold in a live setting, and also represent a modern update on traditional Arabic music and songwriting, with additional multicultural counterpoints.

In Julian Lynch’s music video for “Gloves”, bizarre idea after bizarre idea is executed in fairly mundane settings. All of it might be a bit harder to swallow or a bit more trite if the video were just slightly more static — but its glittery lighting brilliance and creeping zoom shots somehow make its awkwardness beautiful rather than overdone. This beauty extends even to its slow-motion Macarena-meet-zombie-walk dance routines and longing exchanges between the music video’s main character and a mangled stuffed bunny rabbit. Stream the video or read our review of Lynch’s latest album, Lines.  

The music video for “Crescent” is a bizarre piece of work, minimal and almost Lynchian in feel, without much going on save for slow movements and small textural or geometric changes. Directed by Nick Criscuolo, it opens with what look like paintings roaring, like unbridled fires, to be followed by the slow morphing between some unusually magnetic characters (a Frankenstein-like mortician and a space cadet?). The entire music video is largely in greyscale, tinged only by carefully-placed red accents — but such a color scheme seems appropriate for the melancholy sense of mystery that ERAAS seem to prefer (they’d rather not speak about their music videos, for example). In the full post, you can view the music video for “Crescent”, [...]

From its wavy slow-motion intro alone, one can tell that the music video for Xander Harris’ “Night Fortress” is bound to be a rainbow-colored adventure into bizarre costumes and texture-melting acid trip territory. The best part, though, is that it’s not walls or environments melting here — that would be too boring — but rather, bobbing and weaving dancers that dissipate and reform while in a static environment, their bodies changing by way by way of sharp refraction, color dodges, and ripple effects. It really is a video that gets better with repeat viewings, and the dance moves are just tantalizing. Says director Melissa Cha of the concept: “For me, ‘Night Fortress’ conjured images of deranged, alien characters skulking around [...]

“The basic concept has been sort of developing for years, due to our interest in mythology, especially ancient mystery religions that involve sacrificing or dismembering a god/hero and taking him into the underworld in order to give him a secret awareness of the processes of death and resurrection.” – Emily Pothast

Last year, the NSFW video for Kirin J. Callinan’s “Way To War (WIIW)” caught my attention with its punk rock Lars Von Trier visual choices. Just recently, the same director, Kris Moyes, released a music video for Grizzly Bear’s “gun-shy” — crystallizing what I would say is the best track from the band’s latest offering, Shields, into a sputtering-in-time work of natural and “scientific” strangeness. Expect a compare-and-contrast interview with Moyes about both of these videos in the coming month — but for now, relish in the animated .gifs and the video’s delicious sleight of hand, tripped out subtle magic. Full clip inside, along with an initial statement from Moyes about the work.  

In the slow-moving yet visually challenging for The Peach Kings‘ “Lonely”, director Paul Trillo pans back and forth between the New York skyline and a number of opaque and transparent human subjects, both opaque and transparent. According to director Paul Trillo, “The concept behind the video was to convey multiple aspects of loneliness. The feeling of being trapped (or tied down in this case), holding onto what is no longer there, and observing something that no one else is seeing. I think the backdrop of the NY skyline helps emphasize the scale of loneliness.” INTERVIEW W/ PAUL TRILLO CONTINUED BELOW  

Voyeuristic eyes take one through sexually deviant territories in the Thee Oh Sees‘ “Lupine Dominus” and Kasper Bjørke‘s “Bohemian Soul”. Both music videos contain similar themes and color palettes, but one is reminiscent of methy eye bags and Vegas Old Strip-style filthiness; the other travels halfway across the world to offer a beatific view of Thai ladyboys. See the full post to view both music videos and to hear additional tracks from both artists. Thee Oh Sees – “Lupine Dominus” Music Video Kasper Bjørke – “Bohemian Soul” Music Video