Leaper, a late 2015 highlight saw Beliefs continuing to impress and they’ve taken that even further with this Alex Earl Grey-directed clip for the record’s title track. Ostensibly a subtle commentary on the the societal expectations that accompany a woman’s appearance, it’s a striking piece of minimalism that resonates because of its inherent truths. As that commentary plays out, “Colour Of Your Name” also touches on the process of transformation and hints at a secure sense of agency. Stripped down to its barest essentials, “Colour Of Your Name” becomes a startling piece of work that plays directly into the zeitgeist and, in the process, has a more than decent shot of securing a position as a timeless work.
Watch “Colour Of Your Name” below and pick up a copy of Leaperfrom site favorites Hand Drawn Dracula here.
Continuing on with the onslaught of catch-up posts, we return once again to a fiery live-edit clip from one of Toronto’s fiercest live bands: Dilly Dally. An easy CMJhighlight, the band annihilated what seemed to be impossibly high expectations and delivered two of the best sets of the year. A site favorite since their first single, it’s been a joy to watch the band ride the crest of a surging wave of acclaim for Sore, one of 2015’s best records, and deliver at an extraordinarily high level on every platform they’re given. “The Touch” is just the latest in a string of triumphs and, despite Sore being their debut album, it already feels like a victory lap.
As atmospheric imagery is overlaid and intercut with performance footage, “The Touch” takes on the manic feel that partially defines the band’s aesthetic while also bring another important dimension into focus: the idea that there’s inherent beauty to be found in things that most would perceive as ugly or mundane. There’s always a certain emphasis on elegance at the surface of Dilly Dally’s work, whether it’s Sore‘s arresting album art or in their previousmusic videos, that comes laced with a confrontational moment; nothing’s ever truly at peace. “The Touch” reinforces that ideology with its vivid imagery, relentless energy, and bruising commitment, providing the band with a fitting final flourish to a year where they became one of music’s most distinctive new voices.
Watch “The Touch” below, pick up a copy of Sore here, and explore a list of some of the best music videos of the past few months underneath the embed.
Now, despite all the content that’s already gone up tonight, there’s still a lot that went down over the past week and a half while the site was dealing with technical complications. To that end, the approach in coverage is going to be slightly different this time around. Full streams, single streams, and music videos will all be covered- but they’ll be branched off into categories. Each entry will get a line or two and then when everything’s been accounted for, there’ll be a feature spot granted to Beliefs’ ridiculously entertaining clip for “Tidal Wave”. So, without further ado…
The Goodbye Party – Silver Blues: The latest DIY punk-pop gem to grace the impossibly reliable Salinas roster. | Littler – Get A Life: Relentlessly propulsive weirdo punk. | Bonny Doon – Fred’s House Demo: An impossibly overlooked (and impossibly great) folk-tinted basement pop masterpiece. | School ’94 – Like You: Graceful indie pop with gargantuan scope that still manages to come across as refreshingly breezy. | Forth Wanderers – Tough Love: Defiant and subtly venomous basement pop with an unbelievable amount of inherent charm. | SUSAN – Just Call It: Surf-indebted basement pop with enough punk bite to please a purist. | Githead – Waiting For A Sign: Leftifeld post-punk and new wave from a quasi-supergroup that features members of Wire, Compact, and Scanner. | Furnsss – Silent Gold: Deranged slacker punk and basement pop for the actively lethargic. | Thelma & The Sleaze – Heart Like A Fist: Incendiary basement punk with a heaping of 80’s hardcore influence. | Cave People – Older: Treble-heavy basement pop that leans towards sentiment and presents a genuinely memorable vision. | Terrorista – Purple Tape: Hard-charging basement punk that thrives on the notion that everything could fall apart at any second.
MUSIC VIDEOS
Young Statues – Run The River Dry: Visually stunning and endlessly intriguing, “Run The River Dry” shines a bright light on Young Statues’ promising future in the visual format. | Christian Lee Hutson – Late November: A simple concept that becomes a wrenching experience as it transforms into something inexplicably moving. | Flashlight O – TV Time: Staunchly DIY and weirdly hypnotic in its collage-heavy presentation. | Highway Cross – Open Eyes: Furiously paced and brilliantly edited, this is a perfect example of how emphasizing details can pay off in unexpectedly huge ways. | Luluc – Tangled Heart: Beautifully arranged and enhanced with simple, creative effects, “Tangled Heart” winds up feeling like something worth treasuring. | Johnny Marr – Dynamo: The iconic guitarist has always had a visual flair but those tendencies reach new, modern heights with this clip. | Run The Jewels – Oh My Darling (Don’t Cry): Like the group, this is a video driven by outsize personality- it’s unabashedly weird and it’s absolutely glorious. | Bass Drum of Death – For Blood: Bikers and gangs collide in deliriously entertaining fashion throughout this brilliantly executed tracking shot clip. | Blonde Redhead – Dripping: A sensual and highly stylized video that wields atmospherics and soft touches to stunning effect. | Communions – Love Stands Still: Classically composed and unwaveringly endearing; a perfect reflection of Communions’ indie pop. | A Place To Bury Strangers – Straight: A hallucinatory collage of striking imagery backed by one of the band’s most insistent songs to date. | Liars – Mask Maker (Extended Version): Characteristically bizarre and replete with a whole mess of yarn. | Tinkerbelles – When Puppies Cry: Extraordinarily damaged basement punk made weirder by one of the most insanely warped clips of 2014.
TIDAL WAVE
Okay, so the bold font probably wasn’t necessary but it’s late- and this is a really great video. Beliefs first gained an uptick in notoriety when they paired with the similarly-minded Greys for one of 2013’s best splits. Since then, they’ve been on a tear, steadily building a name for themselves on the strength of their powerful new material and formidable live show. If “Tidal Wave” is any indication, they may be able to add great music videos to that list as well. While it mostly finds inspiration in the trends of classic clips from the 80’s and 90’s there’s a certain playfulness here that’s missing from a lot of homage-style videos. That playfulness comes to a head nearly halfway through when they manage to seamlessly work in something genuinely unexpected and ridiculously perfect. It’s too good of a moment to spoil completely but it’s also one of the more endearingly appreciative moments of recent memory. By the time all the effects have worn down and “Tidal Wave” reaches its tongue-in-cheek epilogue, it becomes abundantly clear that this band has big things in mind for Leaper (the forthcoming album “Tidal Wave” is taken from) and for themselves. Beliefs aren’t a band intent to keep quiet and if they keep going at the pace they are, we’re all in for one hell of a ride.
Watch “Tidal Wave” below and pick up Leaper from Hand Drawn Dracula as soon as it’s available.
Heartbreaking Bravery 