Back in June, we premiered the weirdo neon candy madness of "Gotta Gotta Gotta" by fresh Staten Island supergroup Sofa Club. If you enjoyed all the sultry aerobics, get ready for more deranged hotness in the equally classy follow-up video for their EP title track, "Actual Video", again directed by Marc Maffei. Sofa Club's Actual Video is available digitally and on limited 7" vinyl over here.
On Clan Destine Records' recent four-way split LP Statement, in a rather unexpected move, lo-fi renegade Alex Zhang Hungtai aka Dirty Beaches' side was dedicated to one single track, the stunning, guitar-centered psychedelic drone masterpiece "Neon Gods & Funeral Strippers" that evoked Sun Araw circa On Patrol sans the tropical haze. A few days ago, Hungtai published an accompanying visual travelogue that perfectly captures the music's mesmerizing drift.
NFOP regular Ensemble Economique has kept blowing our minds these past years with his cosmic, darkened compositions, always touching the borderline of beautiful and unsettling each and every time new tunes are being created, and as ever, unfolding us to highly cinematic and psychedelic landscapes. Cinematic is indeed the keyword for the mind-blowing jam "Too COLD Too SOON", introduced to the world via Clan Destine Records briefly a month ago, taken off his LTD split tape with Dubai. In these 'brand new' found-footage visuals below, "Too COLD Too SOON" receives some rather agitated esthetics, likely to give you cold shivers down your spine.
Here's a brand new missive by enigmatic producer Vanilla Hammer, whose seven-track madness for patten's Kaleidoscope imprint kept us in suspense for the last week or so. "Bolide" is not part of Retreat, however it does an excellent job in further blurring our preconceptions about what a decent dance anthem should sound like in 2012. And oh, that green haired villain is straight up creepy.
Update: We have been informed that the villain in the video in fact is no villain but none other than the great Captain Planet, a mistake that leaves us truly devastated. We apologize for our ignorance. (He still looks creepy though)
Our friend Fabien Le Gourrierec / The Tearist has long been amongst our favourite found-footage directors, carefully selecting beautiful imagery to go with his fine selection of audio. Mango Gatherer appears to be his latest pick, apparently a certain Parisian named Antoine Cortes who used to record under the name Phant (yes, that is a MySpace link), crafting beautifully organic dream pop. Listen and watch below.
On a cold and rainy November Sunday afternoon like this one, there's really nothing you could do but watch a selection of this week's most interesting videos, and there really was much to see this week, and thanks to us, the essence of it is delightfully presented below, with contributions by our darlings TOPS as well as S O H N, Angel Haze, WIFE, Rangleklods, and King Krule. Enjoy.
Just like anyone identified with our cherished Arbutus crew, and partly also thanks to a little help from a good friend, Devon Welsh aka Majical Cloudz (who is joined by Matthew Otto on stage) has made some well-deserved rounds in the interwebs this year, and it's a delight to see the announcement of a proper EP release pretty soon. Lead-off single and title track "Turns Turns Turns" is, I'm sure a lot of people have already mentioned it this past week, truly gorgeous, an autumnal lullaby that feels subtly hopeful behind its prevailing heavy-hearted melancholia.
The Turns Turns Turns EP is out December 3 via Arbutus (North America) and Merok. Pre-order here.
Holy Strays' stellar track "Christabell B", which we consider his finest work to date and which we described as "a five-minute killer that compellingly blends intricately constructed, footwork-indebted rhythms with eerie vocal samples and Forrester's signature style of organ and synth-driven psychedelia". The new video, directed by Chloe Bonfield, convincingly reinforces both the psychedelic aspects and the tune's pronounced franticness. Watch it now below.
