Welcome to FACT’s newest feature: the weekly video round-up.
As we note at the end of every year, music videos have never been better. But too often, music videos — along with documentaries, live sets and interview clips — get lost in the shuffle of news and new music.
With that in mind, FACT is doing what it does for mixes, mixtapes, vinyl and more: rounding up the internet’s best videos on a weekly basis. And to remove our bias, we won’t be including our own content — you’ll have to stay tuned to FACT TV for all your Against The Clock, FACT Freestyle and Big Narstie needs.
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MADONNA
‘Living For Love’
Dir: J.A.C.K.
Premiered on Snapchat because She Still Gets It, ‘Living For Love’ is a Gaga-fied dance clip that recalls a Madonna video released before most Snapchappers were born: 1994’s matador love story ‘Take A Bow’. The video ends with a Nietzsche quote that — in line with Madonna’s armchair politics — spells the philosopher’s name wrong. Never change, Madge.
VESSEL
‘Drowned in Water and Light’
Dir: Pedro Maia
The brooding, viscous ‘Drowned in Water and Light’ receives a video treatment that takes Vessel’s Punish, Honey album title to heart. The lo-fi film is battered, scratched and damaged, like the film’s subject herself; the art school snuff film culminates with a Laura Palmeresque wrap-job.
VINCE STAPLES
‘Screen Door’
Dir: Spike Jordan & C. Blacksmith
Vince Staples walks through the disembodied doors of his subconscious, rapping his way across apartment complexes, an otherworldly laundromat and the L.A. river. As in his lyrics, violence — from both the drug game and the police — is only a quick cut away.
DJ TAYE & ZORA JONES
‘Neutrino’
Dir: Cyberlight
Zora Jones and Sinjin Hawke’s Fractal Fantasy video-label remains a FACT favorite: the pristinely-animated visuals always capture the electric intensity of the imprint’s tracks. The latest explores a series of neutrino detector rooms that makes us wish we had studied astronomy.
FUTURE BROWN ft. MALUCA
‘Vernáculo’
Dir: Rory Mulhere
The latest salvo in Future Brown’s politically-charged approach to global club music, the mechanized reggaeton of ‘Vernáculo’ is paired with a satirical take on corporate beauty branding for an “exercise in capitalist surrealism” that is reminiscent of previous videos by Future Brown’s Fatima Al Qadiri.
THE HOLY KIT
‘Light Show’
Dir: So Visuals & The Holy KIT
The Chicago-bred L.A. transplant returns with ‘Light Show’, taking his brand of rap menace to the club with creepy results. The absinthe-green filters and skittering-strobes evoke memories of bad decisions made in similarly-hued establishments.
DJ HAUS
‘Acid Bleep’
Dir: Sabrina Ratte
‘TURN ON HD!’ commands the ‘Acid Bleep’ video, and — as with most things — we follow DJ Haus’ advice. The acid-drenched beat and video-game arpeggios of the Helta Skelta standout find their visual mates in this seizure-inducing
clip.
TINASHE
‘Aquarius’
Dir: Tinashe
Tinashe’s self-directed video for her Aquarius title track trades high production values for a smoke-filled, kaleidoscopic video that has the sexual intimacy of late-night smartphone missives.
TAIRIQ & GARFIELD
‘Hood Low’
Dir: Dro Carey
Like their Software labelmates — and the synth legends that inspire them — brotherly duo Tairiq & Garfield have embraced futurism. With VHS artifacts, RoboCop quotes and commands to “Call On The Powers That Be,” Dro Carey pairs the cyberfunk of ‘Hood Low’ with visuals that are equal parts anachronistic and futuristic, like the best dystopian sci-fi.
A-1 x BEAR//FACE
‘Good People’
Dir: Nelson G. Navarrete
Shot at 1400 frames-per-second, ‘Good People’ lets the viewer take in its titular subjects in meditative super slow-mo. “We wanted to show that ‘good people’ come in all forms,” writes A-1. “We wanted to create a piece that could be viewed more as an anthropological study, or a study of human beings, rather than just another rap video.” Mission accomplished.
