Top 10 Music Videos: July 2015
We’ve combed through hours of footage and have gathered the most eye-catching visuals and unique storylines to bring you the best music videos of the month. Happy watching.
10. Fulgeance & DJ Scientist “Vendetta”
The animated video for “Vendetta” from Fulgeance & DJ Scientist takes us on a journey to a Cold War-era Soviet Union for a renegade vinyl heist. We watch the story as the sounds of the Soviet make their way from a high-security facility to the dancefloors of London, later to be refurbished as the Soviet Tapes for mass consumption. While the fanciful tale may seem like a far-fetched Mission Impossible for music lovers, the fascinating aspect of this story is that the “Vendetta” record is a cut from the Soviet Tapes LP, an album completely composed of Soviet-era samples. Fulgeance and DJ Scientist utilize an animation medium to bring their concept album to life and emphasize how in-depth the undertaking of their Soviet Tapes project had become.
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9. DJ Koze “I Haven’t Been Everywhere But It’s On My List”
With a career as long as DJ Koze’s, you’d come to expect a passport with more than a few stamps on it. Playing into his own sense of wanderlust, Koze journeyed out in the Atlantic Ocean to explore what he describes as “ancient hippy caves.” What he found instead was an older local man making moves on his scooter across his indigenous island. He proved to be an ideal tour guide, and the music video for “I Haven’t Been Everywhere But It’s On My List” was born. The simplicity of the video’s crosscut footage, spliced with our jolly fearless leader, highlights the ease and beauty of island life. Only amplified with some trippy color palettes thanks to inverted lenses and a little CGI, “I Haven’t Been Everywhere But It’s On My List” successfully captures our imagination and has us packing our bags to head off to a better place where palm trees grow and wi-fi is limited.
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8. Serge Devant & Damiano ft. Camille Safiya “Fearing Love”
Sometimes there’s nothing worse than the tormenting memories of a significant other from a romance gone wrong. Reminiscent of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the heroine in Serge Devant and Damiano’s “Fearing Love” would rather erase her beau from her memory than live with her recollections of him. Unlike Eternal director Michel Gondry’s fairy tale-like aesthetic, the music video’s director, Tobias Demi, takes a much darker approach, hitting home the point that once love is lost, it may be gone forever. Demi uses the protagonist’s thoughts to show the trajectory of a romantic relationship go from bliss to a bitter end. His direction makes the relationship appear far from satisfying. However, Demi still makes the viewer hope for a chance of redemption with the boyfriend’s endearing life-or-death pursuit to save his girl’s memory. Unfortunately, we’re left feeling as empty as the main character’s erased memory bank by the end and find ourselves cursing all our failed relationships.
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7. Keys N Krates ft. Katy B “Save Me”
In recent years, we’ve become no stranger to out-of-the-ordinary obsessions thanks to TV shows like My Strange Addiction and True Life. For Keys N Krates’ “Save Me,” we get an insider’s view into the lives of those in love with inanimate objects. From mechanophilia—look it up—to dude in love with a shopping cart, “Save Me” explores a side of love we’re not as comprehending of. By the end, we might not be any closer to understanding object sexuality, but the video does manage to show us the beauty in it. If you want to marry your car or your toothbrush, we salute you.
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6. Thundercat “Them Changes”
Bona fide funkateer Thundercat, of Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder imprint, typically brings to mind feel-good rhythms well equipped for a little two-stepping. However, the video for “Them Changes” sets a much darker scene to Thundercat’s usual upbeat disposition. Director Carlos Lopez Estrada utilizes a number of visual metaphors to tell the story of a once-vibrant, now-handicapped samurai warrior. As the limbless samurai is propped up in his living room chair, the viewer sees him ironically watching sword infomercials despite his lack of ever being able to wield his weapon once again. Estrada then calls our eye to a caged guinea pig, which mirrors the situation of the samurai: trapped and hopeless. If you’re not looking to put a damper in your day, you might want to skip this one.
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5. Disclosure ft. Sam Smith “Omen”
For the second installment in Disclosure’s short film series surrounding their sophomore album, Caracal, we pick back up in the story’s futuristic setting for “Omen.” Leaving off with the cliffhanger, high-speed chase at the end of “Holding On,” we’re brought back into the mythical city and reintroduced to the familiar face of Disclosure collaborator Sam Smith. As Smith uses his award-winning pipes to belt out the lyrics of “Omen,” the viewer is clued into a few more pieces of the puzzle via palm-held holograms and ominous Big Brother imagery. Stamped with “To Be Continued” at the end, we’ll have to wait for the next Disclosure single to drop before we get the next piece of the visual puzzle.
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4. Above & Beyond ft. Gemma Hayes “Counting Down the Days”
If Above & Beyond’s music videos reveal anything about the legendary trio, it is that they are bona fide cinephiles. Earlier this year, we were treated to their music video for “Peace of Mind,” which borrowed its plot from cult classic Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Now, A&B continues its film motif for their latest sonic creation, “Counting Down the Days.” Throwing it back to 2009, director Kenlon Clark retells the lovelorn tale of 500 Days of Summer in every heartbreaking detail. From the production sets to the casting, Clark manages to mimic the film’s specifics so exactly we again feel hate toward Zooey Deschanel for breaking Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s little sad boy heart. Reinforced by the soul-searching lyrics of the track, the story of “Counting Down the Days” is just another friendly reminder that “the more you cling to love, the more you’re gonna lose your mind.” If you’re going through a breakup, this video might not be the one for you.
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3. Boys Noize & Pilo “Cerebral”
The hard-hitting techno on “Cerebral,” the latest mosh-inciting gem from Boys Noize and Pilo, gets a bitter-tasting interpretation thanks to Lil Internet. Not for the faint of heart, “Cerebral” uses endless loops of violent images to hit home via a brutal theme of anarchy and chaos. The viewer is introduced to the protagonist, with her brain hooked up to a machine as she watches these disturbing images only to find they’re a reflection of her reality. By the end, “Cerebral” proves to be one of those slap-in-the-face wake-up calls that makes you question everything you thought you knew. Topped off with a “Peace, Love, Unity, Revolution” tag at the end, if there ever were an electronic music call to arms, “Cerebral” is it.
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2. Yogi & Skrillex ft. Pusha T, Moody Good, TrollPhace “Burial”
Anyone familiar with the videography of anything Skrillex-related knows dude keeps things trippy. It comes as little surprise that the official music video for his collaboration with OWSLA signee Yogi on “Burial” is no different. Brought to us by FREENJOY, INC, the Pusha T-featured track sets the scene with a group of contortionists in nightmare-worthy masks. The intriguing part of this video, besides the pyrotechnics and an ice-cream-cone-licking Dennis Rodman cameo (no, really, that happened), is the director’s juxtaposition between CGI special effects and physical special effects courtesy of those superhuman dancers. The result is a mind-boggling, four-minute sensory whirlwind.
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1. Dillon Francis “Exit Through the Donut Hole (I Can’t Take It)”
Besides being known for a slew of hits, Dillon Francis holds a reputation as one of the funniest personas within electronic music. Harnessing his comedic prowess once again, Francis—rather Dillon “Donut” Francis—takes us into the world of a lonely donut fighting for equality. Directed, written, and edited by Agata Alexander, “Exit Through the Donut Hole (I Can’t Take It)” is on the verge of a mockumentary short film with its 14-minute runtime. Showcasing Francis’ awkward punch lines and penchant for transforming himself into any bizarre character he pleases, Alexander’s work manages to break down the mold for how music videos are approached and introduces us to a well-thought out (and hilarious) concept in which to visually express music.
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