11.25.14: The Last VJ’s Top 5 Music Videos of the Week
Welcome to The Last VJ, music fans! Things are mostly strange and disturbing this week, so give thanks to the ones you love. You’re going to need them to hug you after watching some of the offerings that are below. Happy watching.
Populous feat. Iokoi, “Honey”
Written and directed by Bruno Noaro and Elisabetta Carli, “Honey” is a hell of a video that you are going to want to get comfortable before you sit down to enjoy. It’s not something that you can just jump into, but is instead better appreciated one second at a time until it all comes together.
Paolo Roberto Di Seglio stars as a young boy terribly in love with a girl named Cathy but too shy to approach her. Instead he swims at a local pool when she does and takes pictures of her without her knowledge. Then he goes home to write her letters that he never delivers. Buoyed by the ethereal bleakness of Populous’ amazing track, it’s both sad and sinister at the same time. Almost Lynchian in its genius.
Sonny & The Sunsets, “Cheap Extensions”
I run across a lot of strange animated videos these days, and they are often a mixed big. “Cheap Extensions” is something new in that it is largely a collagist work, but it’s very linear and easy to follow even if where it takes you is damned bizarre.
Teppei Ando is the mind behind it the art along with a script by Sonny Smith himself. Describing it is very difficult. It starts largely as a tale of unrequited love, but somewhere along the line it starts involving Yakuza and bears and the only tie in are the titular cheap extensions that glow brightly in the black and white world. It flows like a river of strange pop art all chugging through an incomprehensible life cycle, and every second is golden.
Irontom, “The Minista”
Easily one of the mist fun videos of the week is “The Minista’. It’s not exactly brimming with plot narrative, mind you, but what it lacks in storytelling it more than makes up for in style.
Largely, the video is a retelling of <em>The Masque of the Red Death</em>, with subtle nods like the clock make-up on the bands face and other little references for the sharp-eyed. What’s next is a parade of the macabre and strange as a masqued balls revels all around. Among the part-goers is a strange, golden figure who seems to inspire dread with every step, until he is revealed at the end to be… Charlie Sheen.
Yep, Sheen was also a producer on the vid, and busts out the greatest WTF cameo since Nick Cage played Fu Manchu in <em>Werewolf Women of the S.S.</em>. You may think I’ve spoiled the pay-off, but trust me, it cannot possibly be spoiled, such is it’s twisted majesty.
Victoria+Jean, “Why Won’t You”
Director Christophe Thockler paints in fire the way other people paint in oils, and nothing shows that off better than his video for Victoria+Jean’s “Why Won’t You”. It’s a simple trick, exploring the way that fire can be manipulated through burning film, and on it’s own it’s little more than a gimmick.
Where the video stands out, though is the way Thockler is able to weave footage of Victoria singing in and out of the consumption by flame. The first time her picture comes alive to sing among the cinders it’s honestly disturbing and unnerving. She smiles with such honest loveliness, but it’s like a nightmare come to life in Thockler’s hands. It’s just amazing.
Skrillex, “Fuck That”
Last this week, we get a hell of a great, dirt flick from Skrillex and director Nabil. It’s gritty and bleak, the tale of a Mexican pit fighter looking for a big score but for whom everything goes terribly wrong. Car chases, brutal fights, shoot outs, and even the coming of Death itself near the end makes you wish for the days when Robert Rodriguez had less budget and more fire. This is probably the closest we’ll ever see to those days again.
Jef has a new story, a tale of mad robot nurses and a man of miracles called “Sleepers, Wake!” available now. You can also connect with him on Facebook.
