Wednesday, May 9, 2012

The A/V Room: May

It's been a while since the last edition of the A/V Room, and to be honest it's less to do with laziness and more to do with a lack of clips good enough to justify being collected together worthy in one post. Then, like karmic backlash, a whole spate of them arrive in one month! When it rains...

Lowlakes - Buffalo (Dir: Lacey Whelan)

Kicking us off is the latest from Melbourne-via-Alice Springs quartet Lowlakes. The recent AMR Introductees (yeah, that's a thing now) recently delivered not only a beautifully realised self-titled EP, but an excellent live show to launch it as well. Now, there's a clip to accompany EP highlight, 'Buffalo.' An animated fable that suits the song's mystique and haunting tone.
The moral of the tale? Don't throw apples.


tUnEyArDs - My Country (Dir: Mimi Cave)

tUnEyArDs - aka Merrill Garbus, she of the eccentric vocal acrobatics and impressive live show - offers up the second video from her impressive W H O K I L L record from last year (and of AMR's Top 20 of 2011). 'My Country' is the spiritual sequel to the previously joyous 'Bizness,' again with Mimi Cave at the helm and featuring Garbus mucking about with face-painted kids in an explosion of colour and movement. This time adding beating hearts, sax-playing and one very cool pop-locking kid. If it doesn't bring a smile to your face, then you don't have a pulse.

Storm Corrosion - Drag Ropes (Dir: Jessica Cope)


The shadow-play narrative of the ten-minute mood epic 'Drag Ropes,' is our first visual and audio taste of Storm Corrosion; the moniker for Opeth's Mikael Ã…kerfeldt and prog's hardest working man, Steven Wilson. As an enormous fan of the latter in particular, with his previous work as a member of Porcupine Tree, No-Man , Blackfield and many, many others. To say that I - along with the collective heavy rock community - have been awaiting the fruits of their creative partnership with baited breath, is an understatement. If the first results are anything to go by, we're in for something satisfyingly familiar yet sonically surprising. There's sure to be more on Storm Corrosion in AMR when their album surfaces in the next week or two. Watch this space...

Joe McKee - Darling Hills (Dir: Liam Saint-Pierre)


Joe McKee was a member of the now defunct, but still criminally underrated Snowman. AMR has been keeping tabs on Mr. McKee ever since our informal chat about the demise of their spooky, ambient brilliance, and his own future music plans. Fresh from a local residency and a national tour with Ben Salter, McKee has now unveiled the first official sounds of his debut solo album, Burning Boy in the form of 'Darling Hills.' Named for the same geographical ranges of his native Perth, it features echoes of McKee's former band in his grave baritone and hypnotically lush production, all matched visually by the artist tossing in sleep, super-imposed beneath a dream-like series of fuzzy Australiana and archival footage. Cannot wait for the full-length after this.

Major Lazer - Get Free (feat. Amber Coffman)


The new standalone release from Major Lazer (who's actually producers Diplo and Switch) is uncharacteristically introspective, downplaying the usual dancehall bonkers escapism in favour of supporting Amber Coffman with restrained dub flourishes. Meanwhile, the Dirty Projectors lass (and AMR heart-throb) punctuates the track with her cascading guitar lines and finely textured vocal parts. The video to accompany it is equally reflective, though the animation is crude and the pace gravely slow, it's a fitting stylistic accompaniment.... complete with on-screen lyrics. That'll be the karaoke video sorted then.

Grimes - Oblivion (Dir: Emily Kai Bock)


Already touted as one of 2012's hotly-tipped acts before she was even featured for 'Introducing...' Canada's Grimes, or Claire Boucher as she's known when not concocting pop futurism, released a curious but captivating video for the second single from her major-label debut, Visions (handily reviewed here). Featuring Boucher miming in a variety of sports arenas in a series of fluffed takes, or with man-boys in various states of undress, makes for some fun viewing. Perhaps used to complicate the stereotypically girly image of the female pop singer, her hipster 'look' is at once frustrating and charmingly fey.

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