First Aid Kit “Master Pretender”
First Aid Kit are back with a new single off their 2014 album Stay Gold. “Master Pretender” is an animated video about two young girls. They climb trees before leaping off and pretending they’re birds. The video follows them as they pretend to be different things and make their way through the world. It’s visually simple in that it’s dark cutouts in front of a colored background, but the way the figures look is stunning. We see seascapes, landscapes, and even a view of things from space. We see dragons, and the girls as knights, as well as horses roaming the plains. There’s no stop to where the mind can’t take you, and it’s that kind of freedom that we should all latch onto.
Orla Gartland “Whispers”
Orla Gartland’s video for “Whispers” takes a look at the progression of a relationship that burns up fast and dulls away. Orla is at the eye doctors looking through one of those gadgets where they ask you this, or this? As the lenses flip in and out we see different things, but always more clearly. The couple are first very together, enjoying each other. But as time goes on, the flipping lenses show them starting to revert to their natural state, two separate beings. It’s hard to find yourself sitting at lunch having separate plates and glasses, and instead of talking one or both are buried in their cell phones. It can hurt when you think back to times where you shared a milkshake together. It’s the clarity of getting the right prescription for your eyes that lets you see things clearly. For relastionships gone sour, it’s time that gets you to see things for what was and what wasn’t. It’s a correct analogy for the whole sorted mess.
Savant “Kali 47”
Savant’s video for “Kali 47” is an action packed sci-fi adventure in a steampunk meets wild west world. The action all goes down at he local saloon called Kali 47. The trouble starts when a woman comes running in screaming. On her heels are three robots who come in with guns blazing. The men folk of the saloon, and one tough gal of a bartender, do their damnedest to fight off these mechanical foes. It’s harder than it looks. One of these mecha baddies takes a shotgun blast to the face, only his head comes back together. The hero in this story is from a native tribe. Their shaman senses danger while looking in a fire, and so our brave warrior rushes off on his horse to save the day. It’s an intriguing tale of those who defend the earth battling the evil doers of Industrialization. Or you can just focus on the gun battle. It’s entertaining, and it makes you think, but you don’t have to do both.
Gunship “Fly For Your Life”
Gunship’s music video for “Fly for Your Life” is an animated work of art. It’s more than that. It’s a masterpiece. We see two pilots in propeller era planes duking it out with one another in a dogfight. There are bullets flying everywhere. The planes are taking damage, the pilots are also showing wear and tear. This is a battle to the death. One pilot has a rosary that is destroyed in the fray. The other loses a photograph of his wife. And when both planes finally run out of bullets and are destined to crash out of the sky, these pilots eject and fire at each other with their side pieces. It’s a revolver against something that resembles a Luger. When this fails, they pull out knives. It’s the fury of war and the way it drives hatred to the point where you only want to kill your enemy. But as the fight gets more personal, the pilots both transform into monster-like beings, until in the end as they crawl at one another they totally disappear. All that’s left are the trails in the snow of them moving towards one another.
Flying Lotus “Coronus, The Terminator”
Flying Lotus’s latest single is “Coronus, The Terminator”. The video opens up in a home where a man is laying in bed with IV’s attached to him. He’s not doing well, as the visitors to the home all approach him and lay their hands on him to pray. He looks over at a young man who won’t approach him. At first I thought it was because this young man only has one hand. His right arm is missing from the elbow down. But there’s more to this. The sick starts to see white figures. These figures do an interesting job of being ghosts. They’re covered in white powder, and two of the do some pop and locking dance moves in a very slow, and potentially eerie way. The third ghost figure is Flying Lotus himself. Whenever one of these fellows move quickly, the white dust kicks up in the air giving that cloudy figure of an apparition. But back to the sick man. He starts to see himself walking around the house. He leaves and gets on a bus, where he sees the boy. He follows the boy off at a stop and finds himself in the slums under the underpass. Here he follows the boy to his doom, as in this vision the boy ultimately shoots him with an automatic weapon from his mechanized right hand. There is no blood, rather flower petals are spilled onto the water where this occurs. And just like that, you realize that the boy has some guilt, as though he is responsible for the illness that takes this man away.
