Uncover The Female Gaze In This Week’s Holy Hunter of Music Videos
The only “Disappointing” bit of former Czars frontman John Grant’s latest ditty is realizing how long it’s been since we’ve heard from Everything but the Girl songstress Tracey Thorne, who lends vocals on the disco-house-y love song. If a special place carved out for her in a contemporary version of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “My Favorite Things” sung by a fully bearded gentleman in a sticky, scantily clad men’s locker room stirs you, please press play (multiple times). And let’s keep our eyes, ears, rears and beards out for David Wilson as he’s responsible for another favorite pick of the year for Royal Blood.
Berlin-based psych-pop outfit Fenster are, in their own words, admirers of post-apocalyptic fiction, bleak fifties Americana and in mine boldly putting the cart before the horse with the creation of a motion picture soundtrack before their accompanying, titular film EMOCEAN was unearthed. The tale unfurls first as a documentary about the four-piece struggling to complete their third studio album, then evolves into a sci-fi action/adventure amid an alternate dimension where they’re unable to access feelings. Riding my standard wave of curiosity, I sought solace in poorly-translated German-to-English reviews of the whole affair, which read like scribbled witching hour dream recollections from your bedside notepad: “But one has to EMOCEAN not hear, but rather as a trip to a distant blur, as travel by diffuse fluffiness on a flying Flokati. Well, now reaching this joint finally on!”
I’m not kitten around when I say Amsterdam’s Lernert & Sander wield an enviable creative power and the ability to span the spectrum from DIY sex machines to techno cats in just over four years. Naturally, this particular offering is far more shareable with the whole family/office (assuming they aren’t allergic). The sassy snow-white speaker hogging creature front and center answers to the name of “Manon” and I’ll do anything she asks of me.
This week’s bonus via-celluloid jam stems from local synth-drenched duo Night Drive -- notably nominated for Best Art Direction at Austin’s recent first annual Music Video Festival. The Jean Giraud-inspired from-scratch concept results in a fantastic birth of costume, lighting and set design echoing director Mark Roethke’s sci-fi noir sensibilities while also introducing a team of masterly artists crushing it at the helm of their respective creative departments. This could be your power song.
