Each week, FRINGE MUSIC FIX culls the latest music video releases, carefully selecting the most bizarre, provocative, and remarkable videos from across the world.
Sit back, relax, and open your minds eye; things are about to get interesting. The following are our selections for the week ending September 28th, 2014.
Elliphant (Ellinor Olovsdotter) and MØ (Karen Marie Ørsted) have a lot in common. They're both edgy solo artists from Europe (more specifically, from Sweden and Denmark), are both in their 20s, in the past both have worked with Diplo and the video's director, Tim Erem, and for the past couple years, have quickly emerged to become two of the most exciting new artists in electronic pop music. They also share some similar stylistic aesthetics, as seen in the video for "One More," in which they both wear matching Adidas tracksuits and light-up sneakers. Like the track, which marries the best musical trademarks that each artist brings to the table, the video does a great job of highlighting the subtle performance mannerisms of both idiosyncratic artists. The dimly-lit visual features both Elliphant and MØ hitting the town for a night of smoking, drinking, fighting, kissing and even pissing in public.
Playing out as a sequel of sorts to Italian production duo Crookers' Plastic Horse animated music video for "Able To Maximize," the bizarre dream-like visual for "Picture This" follows an animated Phra (one Half of Crookers) through a wacky series of events that sees him beheaded, turned into a pizza, and eaten by businessmen men, who inexplicably grow attacking beards.
Production company WelcomeToCult, director Dimitri Basil, and Say Lou Lou assemble for the excellent music video for the twin-sister duo's collaborative track with producer Lindstrøm. The visual entertains a loose "social experiment," in which a billboard is replaced with an image of Say Lou Lou, and a bust of Miranda Kilbey is sneakily placed in a museum. What I liked best about the visual is the 70s-inspired style in which both the impossibly beautiful Kilby twins, and the L.A. city scape are styled and filmed, giving things a decidedly European effect.
With it's Gotham-like city setting, dark black and yellow colour palette, and it's edgy illustrative style, the shadowy animated video for SBTRKT's "New Drop, New York", directed by Fons Schiedon, echoes shades of the popular Batman: The Animated Series, which aired between 1992-1995. Viewers familiar with New York may recognize many actual landmarks such as the Statten Island Ferry and the Verrazano Bridge. The videos' central character, a strange mammal-like creature of an uncertain breed, also serves as a nod to the cover design from the upcoming SBTRKT album, "Wonder Where We Land," which, like the final shot of the video, features the creature perched in a giant hand.
Like every epic pop video, the Milord and L'Étiquette directed music video for YELLE's "Complètement Fou" is an unforgettable, colourful, endlessly fun, and like the song's title, which translates to "Completely Crazy", is an absolutely insane trip into a a world filled with giant corn on the cob, energetic vogue dancing, and a whole lot of popcorn.
