Photo: Tim Shearwood
Our regular series of The VidList captures the best music videos (and tracks!) released over the past few weeks. Below we have new music videos across varied styles, from dance, indie, electronic, blues-rock and contemporary folk.
1) Æ MAK & Le Boom - 'Dancing Bug'
What a combo, Le Boom and Æ MAK, two of the most progressive and artistic acts of the last few years merge their talents on 'Dancing Bug' which they recorded and wrote together over the course of a mere few hours. The combination of Le Boom's trademark bubbling electronic dance beats and Aoife McCann's vocal are highly complimentary, to the point you'd hope this isn't a once off. On many moments during the track, even though it's just under 3 minutes long, each act shares the best of what they do. Fun fact: the video was shot on Carnew Street in Stoneybatter, Dublin 7 and is the same location where pop queens The Spice Girls made their own video for their single 'Stop' back in 1998!
What a combo, Le Boom and Æ MAK, two of the most progressive and artistic acts of the last few years merge their talents on 'Dancing Bug' which they recorded and wrote together over the course of a mere few hours. The combination of Le Boom's trademark bubbling electronic dance beats and Aoife McCann's vocal are highly complimentary, to the point you'd hope this isn't a once off. On many moments during the track, even though it's just under 3 minutes long, each act shares the best of what they do. Fun fact: the video was shot on Carnew Street in Stoneybatter, Dublin 7 and is the same location where pop queens The Spice Girls made their own video for their single 'Stop' back in 1998!
2) Paddy Hanna - 'Frankly, I Mutate'
From what was easily one of the best Irish albums of last year, Paddy Hanna shares the title-track music video for 'Frankly, I Mutate', directed and produced by Niall McCann. It's a majestic visual that acts like a microcosm of his song-writing, theatrical drama, brevity, humour and awkwardness acting like a thinly layered bubble surrounding the deep themes of his music. As always the lyrics are poetic and provide huge scope for the listener's interpretation and imagine to run off with, and there's also a melancholy feeling of isolation which reveals itself right at the end.
3) Third Smoke - 'We Run in Bare Feet'
From what was easily one of the best Irish albums of last year, Paddy Hanna shares the title-track music video for 'Frankly, I Mutate', directed and produced by Niall McCann. It's a majestic visual that acts like a microcosm of his song-writing, theatrical drama, brevity, humour and awkwardness acting like a thinly layered bubble surrounding the deep themes of his music. As always the lyrics are poetic and provide huge scope for the listener's interpretation and imagine to run off with, and there's also a melancholy feeling of isolation which reveals itself right at the end.
I haven't been able to stop listening to the latest (and best?) single from Third Smoke since its release a few weeks ago, and now there's a music video by Greg Corcoran to accompany it which captures their individual and collective live power. From our recent review of 'We Run in Bare Feet', feel the power.
"A much more intense indie-rock affair from Third Smoke compared to their previous singles, the quintet opt for rattling columns of sound on 'We Run in Bare Feet'. With multiple injections of joy coming from all angles, I'm tempted to say this is their best single to date, but it's a tough call as their sound varies enough across their tracks. A pounding drive of bass, percussion and electric guitar first push and then drive frontman Hugh Donlon's vocal to celestial heights. I love it."
4) The Murder Capital - 'Green & Blue'
It's a tough spot to find yourself in before you've even released your first single, The Murder Capital were already being piled on by a small but vocal number of cynics before they'd even released debut single 'Feeling Fades' earlier this year over the hype they were generating locally. This is the type of shithousery we've seen with fellow Dublin band Fontaines D.C., the classic Irish trope of "look at that fucker up there on the top of the hill, grrr". After seeing an arresting and kind of intimidating in a memorable way (this is what you want) performance of theirs last year I could see first hand that they deserved any success that was coming their way. You have to judge bands on their abilities and their music, and of course how that translates on stage.
Latest single 'Green & Blue' is a doom-laden post-punk affair that doffs its cap to the gothic sounds of The Cure's 80's output such as Pornography and Disintegration. Rumbling hypnotic percussion and crisp yet thick bass-lines ensure the mood stays sombre, yet engaging through the entirety of the track, the sparseness of the instrumentation allows lead singer James McGovern's domineering vocal to provide the unsettling discomfort that is quickly becoming a hallmark of their sound.
5) Laura Duff - 'Up To You'
Singer-songwriter Laura Duff released her single 'Up To You' towards the end of 2018, and now shares the accompanying music video directed by Róisín Little. This is a wonderfully colourful and addictive slice of psychedelic indie-pop, which is given the most fitting visual companion between the mid-60's pop lighting, rhythmic movement of the contemporary dance and kaleidoscopic backdrops. Duff has that easily loveable escapist vocal style that produces a nonchalant and disarming effect on the listener, haute-chill. 'Up To You' is taken from Laura Duff's promising debut EP For Your Company which was released on the 27th of February, listen here.
Check out our previous VidList, No. 015, here https://thebestofmusicandfilm.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-vidlist-015-jafaris-otherkin-cfit.html
