Welcome to FACT’s 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 Freestyles and Confessions needs.
Read more: The 20 best music videos of 2015
D∆WN
‘Not Above That’
Dir: DJ Turner and Monty Marsh
Finally, a VR/360-degree video that takes full advantage of the format. The viewer is the pilot of a transparent spaceship as planets, wormholes and other spacecrafts whizz by. Thankfully, D∆WN is there, too, as an avatar, a HUD singer and a dancing sprite.
Glass Gang
‘Outside Your Love’
Dir: Taylor Antisdel
In this neo-noir romance that evokes both Drive and The Place Beyond the Pines, a motorbiker looks for love in karaoke rooms, abandoned boardwalks, photo booths and swing sets.
Danny Brown
‘When It Rain’
Dir: Mimi Cave
Presented as a warped VHS collage, Danny Brown celebrates Detroit and parties with the dancers that inspired and are served by the song.
Kel Valhaal
‘Tense Stage (Edit)’
Dir: Aujik
Liturgy’s Hunter Hunt-Hendrix explores the “transcendental qabala” as Kel Valhaal, and visual collaborator Aujik crafts a 3D world full of boneyards, portals, organic material pocket universes and hypothetical therapist’s offices that loops back on itself as the song builds to a climax.
Adult Jazz
‘Pumped From Above’
Dir: Sam Travis
Adult Jazz reunites with Sam Travis for a sequel to ‘Earrings Off!’, but instead of that video’s golden statuettes, ‘Pumped From Above’ features chalk white figures (reminiscent of the Engineers from Prometheus) that morph into a mass of humanity that is always in motion.
Kenton Slash Demon
‘Peace’
Dir: Jenna Mangulad
Kenton Slash Demon and director Jenna Mangula revisit the tropes (rubber aliens, orientalism) of ‘50s sci-fi-horror B-movies in a black-and-white video about alien encounters and abduction.
Major Lazer
‘Night Riders’
Dir: KILLDEATH
Major Lazer and friends mix some narrative into their T’n’A, following a protagonist that makes ends meet in underground MMA fights and neon-bathed strip clubs. Thankfully, the character has some agency, giving a handsy patron and a would-be assaulter their comeuppance.
Ian Isiah
‘247’
Dir: Minnie Bennett
In an off-kilter video that looks like a lo-fi home movie, Ian Isiah is all high heels and hairflips as he explores the less glamorous parts of New York. (Stay tuned until the end for a hotline number to tell him what you think of the song and video.)
Darkstar feat. Empress Of
‘Reformer’
Dir: David M. Helman
At both dusk and dawn, waves crash at the feet of Empress Of as she brings her emotionally-charged vocals to Darkstar’s orchestral ‘Reformer’.
Calvin Harris feat. Rihanna
‘This Is What You Came For’
Dir: Emil Nava
While this doesn’t measure up to her recent videos, Rihanna is playful and seductive enough to bring life to a white box that gets blasted with a neon light show and projected dance club footage.
