Top 5 Alternative Music Videos

Nathan Harris discusses his top 5 alternative music videos.

Music videos have lately become a farcical medium, a proverbial corporate gangbang stuffing Beats Pill speakers and Pepsi logos into every available orifice, whether it’s Katy Perry straddling Ronald McDonald or Will.i.am playing Xbox with the Queen. Here are five examples that are reminders of just how good music videos can be.

1. Blockhead – The Music Scene

Some videos are best reserved for those ‘pass the parcel’ evenings where everyone takes turns showing each other Youtube videos on a laptop, and I’ve lost count how many times I’ve eagerly asked “have you ever seen The Music Scene?” Beautifully animated, the video is actually a brilliantly realised commentary on the relationship between nature and technology, and trippy as hell to boot. Dim the lights and wait with bated breath as a hushed silence descends on the room as the video finishes, until someone says “oh man that was siiiiiick.”

 

2. Justice – New Lands

This entry is a shining example of how product placement can be beneficial to music videos, mostly because of the astounding budget it can afford them. ‘New Lands’ is more akin to a short film with Hollywood standards of production, paid for by Red Bull. Known for slick visuals, seminal French House duo Justice teamed up with audiovisual production company CANADA to produce this wonderful parody of 80’s sci-fi, complete with a protagonist heavily reminiscent of Escape From New York’s Snake Plisken. Just. So. Cool.

 

3. Cassius – Sound Of Violence

Another video suited to “pass the parcel” from another genius French House duo, and not a single Daft Punk in sight. The Sound of Violence by Cassius is not only an absolute banger taken from 2002’s Au Rêve, but has an equally brilliant video. A friend of mine drank two bottles of wine following several bombs whilst waiting in a queue for Rusko, I’m pretty sure that this video is an accurate depiction of what he saw that night.

 

4. Mint Royale – Blue Song

Perhaps best known for their remix of ‘Singing in The Rain’ Mint Royale are also responsible for this cruelly overlooked video. Featuring the Mighty Boosh as well as Nick Frost and Michael Smiley (Tyres) from Spaced, it’s an interesting take on the bank heist and an insight into what must be painfully boring downtime for the getaway driver.

 

5. Jackson and his Computer Band – G.I Jane

The last entry on this list makes it in just for being downright bizarre. Parisian IDM producer Jackson Fourgeaud has always been something of an auteur with his music, and the release of the absolutely brilliant Glow last year cemented his place as one of the French greats. The second single off the record, G.I Jane (Fill Me Up), has since been blessed with an extravagantly explicit video as animated cocks fly about and transmogrify into whales, and a woman’s pubic area becomes a floating jungle island.  Yeah, you read that right. Classic.