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Molek FMBest Music Videos Of The Naughties, Part 2
Our part One was just the tip of the iceberg of JUICE‘s favourite music video of the naughties. You didn’t think that would be just it, did you? A video could either make or break you. Who is in and who is out? Here’s Part 2 of our salute to the best videos of the past decade…
Text Ben Liew, Kevin Yeoh, Miranda Yeoh, Muna Noor + Raphael Westwood
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPTP2VW_dmE[/youtube]
Hifana – ‘Wamono’
Unlike real life incest, the rumble between ad agency Wieden+Kennedy and independant music label, W+K Tokyo Lab has borne some truly beautiful children. Among them is Japanese breakbeat musical duo, Hifana’s video for ‘Wamono’. Eric Cruz, creative director for W+K Tokyo Lab ropes in graphic designer team VJ Gec, and Hifana’s own graphic designer Juicy and illustrator Maharo to fashion this surreal depiction of Japanese folklore and fishery. Check also +cruz’s ‘Digital Breath’ for Afra and animated hip hop video ‘What You Standin For?’ for DJ Uppercut.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsk8QQj5Nrc[/youtube]
Sebastien Tellier – ‘La Ritournelle’
Get ready to get vulnerable. Even perfect lives don’t have happy endings. Composed of a series of thousand of photographs, it was directed by American Ace Norton who has also created videos for Simian Mobile Disco’s ‘Hustler’ and Bloc Party’s ‘Flux’, proving that there’s a heart in there somewhere. Now reach for the tissue box.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVMwlP3J76U[/youtube]
Sam Sparro – ’21st Century Life’
Keeping with Mariah Garnett style, this 2008 80s pastiche carries the hipster styles, neon hues and mix and mash style you and I know from a Lapsap night. Mariah also directed Sam’s ‘Black & Gold’ and ‘Cottonmouth’, but for something completely different check her stop-motion work for the Mark Ronson cover of ‘Toxic’.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSUjvVjKqYs[/youtube]
El Pres!dente – ‘Rocket’
Nordic king of post-modernist cut and paste, Jonas Odell first came to JUICE‘s attention through Franz Ferdinand’s Dadaist/Constructivist photo montage promo for the band’s smash single ‘Take Me Out’. He’s since produced Audio Bully’s graphic, lipstick smeared live-action collage for ‘Shot You Down’ and Goldfrapp’s kaleidoscopic ‘Strict Machine’. He returns to Glasgow Scotland again for El Pres!dente’s ‘Rocket’ a hybrid live action/animation promo inspired by Communist propaganda posters, political flags and Che Guevara. All hail!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wow5RPKfPS4[/youtube]
Orishas – ‘Habana’
Edouard Salier is a naughty boy. A designer/animator/live -action director with a penchant for pornography, he started off designing record sleeves before a transition into music videos. His short film Flesh is nothing short of provocative and his bizarre cut and paste vision for Cuban hip hop collective Orishas isn’t without a flash of the naughty bits between the sepia-toned scenes. Mat Cook + Julian House aka Intro produce a graphic, glossy, future flouro, cut and paste treatment for Prodigy’s ‘Girls’.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv8mJfDPxuA[/youtube]
The Faint – ‘Agenda Suicide’
The first single released from The Faint’s 2001 album Danse Macabre, the music video for ‘Agenda Suicide’ was directed and made by Kansas-based animation studio MK12. Featuring “graphic animation and heavily treated live action”, sadly it was banned from MTV for purportedly promoting suicide. Still, who wouldn’t throw themselves in front of a train if their entire life amounted to being part of the soul destroying rat race. Hey, that’s us….
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQHPYelqr0E[/youtube]
Weezer – ‘Pork And Beans’
Weezer has committed many a brillian idea to video like their 2002 ‘Keep Fishin” vid with the muppets and 1994 ‘Buddy Holly’ tribute to Happy Days directed by Spike Jonze. But it was their spot-the meme promo to ‘Pork And Beans’ that went on to become the most blogged about video of 2008 with over 20 million views (and counting) on YouTube. Aside its parody of internet phenoms like Dramatic Chipmunk, the Sneezing Panda and Charlie the Unicorn, it also proved that sticking a Mentos in a bottle of coke really can cause a froth. Its director Mathew Cullen of Motion Theory bagged a Grammy for that; that he has been inducted into the Museum Of Modern Art on numerous occasions goes to show that the music video is no throw away art form.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8Kbs3XBgP4[/youtube]
Futureshock – ‘Late At Night’
Anglo-Japanese directing team Ne-o aka Jake Knight and Ryoko Tanaka underscore analogue and digital imaging and post-production and manipulating techniques with an offbeat sense of humour in their works. Their subject of choice: humdrum Japan. In Futureshock’s ‘Late At Night’ the mundanity of twilight and empty alienating spaces and dehumanizing strip-lighting becomes the backdrop of breaking, popping and locking shift workers. More Japanese salarymen abound, this time rapping to Coldcut’s ‘The State We’re In’. Hai!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2AGvj2cdlY&feature=PlayList&p=C156133F6910E6C1&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=27[/youtube]
REM – ‘Imitation Of Life’
Possibly inspired by Michael Stripe’s extreme bendiness, Hammer & Tongs aka Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith (usually famed for good natured but quirky vids like Vampire Weekend’s ‘Cousins’ and ‘A-Punk’, as well as Beck’s ‘Hell Yes’ and Blur’s ‘Coffee & TV’) bend time in REM’s ‘Imitation of Life’ vid. Capturing the scene at LA’s weirdest pool party, the vid purportedly took a mere 20 second to shoot but is looped forward and backwards, while a pan and scan technique – usually employed when moving from widescreen to TV and DVD format – zooms in and out on party guests. More time warping takes place in Coldplay’s ‘The Scientist’. Director Jamie Threaves makes use of a reverse narrative that meant Chris Martin had to learn to sing backwards. Haha….
This feature could not have been completed without the help of the British Council and Onedotzero. Please check their websites at
www.britishcouncil.org/malaysia and www.onedotzero.com, and support their activities.
