The art of the music video has gone many places and worn many faces over the years, from the humble “performance” video down to the arty high concept stuff. They’re one of the best ways to advertise a new single and/or album, and they help craft an identity for the very songs in question- sometimes to the point of the video and the tune are so intrinsically linked in the collective consciousness that just the first few notes or stanzas are enough to bring it back to the forefront of your mind.
And today, we’re gonna look at some of my favourite themeatically-appropriate-for-the-season music vidoes, in no particular order!
My criteria for this list was the direct opposite of the last one; any music video that is in some way disturbing, even if it isn’t directly referencing classic horror tropes or Halloween specifically, is still fair game. My only proviso is that it has to be the video, not the song, that makes the list, so any weird/abstract songs with otherwise upbeat or at worst ambiguous videos were right out.
---
Title: All Mine
Artist: Portishead
I’m willing to bet most of you are more likely to be familiar with the works of Akira Yamaoka then you are the artists and movement that likely inspired some of the work he produced for the Silent Hill series; the early-to-late 90s Trip Hop movement that birthed acts like Massive Attack, Attica Blues, and Portishead. Portishead’s sound specifically absolutely encompasses everything I think of when I hear the word “moody”, from crackly drum breaks, sampled orchestra swells and stubs, and deep basslines that slice through through the mix like a knife. This song has all of that and then some, and is one of the single moodiest and atmospheric tracks ever etched by man out of a sampler as far as I’m concerned. It’s only fitting then that the video itself can only be described as incredibly moody and a little bit unsettling; I mean for starters, children are terrifying, but children with underbites singing whilst “backed” by an orchestra doing literally nothing? All whilst weird images of the girl and some crotchety old geezer are displayed on the screen behind her as she sings? That’s a bit creepy to say the least. The lyrics the girl in the video is singing along with also add another dimension to the whole thing that’s just not there when listening to the track alone, given this child is singing the kind of song that... well, I’ll just quote the second bridge verbatim; “Make no mistake, you shan’t escape; tethered and tied, there’s nowhere to hide from me; All Mine.” Sends an ugly shiver down your spine, doesn’t it? Even the fact that the actual vocals are provided by the bands normal vocalist, Beth Gibbons, does little to soften the impact.
Title: Ghost
Artist: Mystery Skulls
This entry is actually something of a misnomer, because this isn’t the official music video; this is a fan made video. See, that’s one of the more obviously good things about the Internet amidst all the grey areas; the ability for creative people who might not have otherwise met to get together and just make something out of love for the thing- and actually have people see it. And see it people did; if you frequent Tumblr in any capacity, you already know this video made a hell of an impact when it came out just six days shy of a year ago. Arguably, this video became more popular then the official music video produced for the song- which is a fine video in of itself, no question, but I admit that I too prefer the animated video for a couple of reasons; first, it’s animated, which is always a winner with me. Second, the medium of animation often allows for more high concept ideas, some of which are difficult to do using live action if not impossible to convey in a way that doesn’t draw you out of the experience. The spearhead of the Mystery Skulls Animated project, MysteryBen27 was not only aware of this, but activelyused it to his and his team’s advantage to craft a story that’s simple enough to follow, deep enough to leave the viewer with some questions, and fits with the music it’s being mixed with both lyrically and tonally, in all it’s 80s synth dance glory. Toss in some nice character design work, some pretty decent animation, and amusing touches like almost every single thing bopping along to the 4/4 rhythm of the song, and you’ve got yourself a real winner.
Also, the heavy doses of inspiration from Scooby Doo appeal to me as a child who grew up knowing without any hint of doubt that Scooby Doo on Zombie Island was the shit, so y’know.
Title: Lee Van Cleef
Artist: Primus
Dio is going to kill me for talking about this video before she did.
So, Primus. What can I say about Primus that hasn’t already been said by everyone else? They’re weird, they’re wonderful, and Les Claypool can twang a Fender like nobodies business. And right from the get go, this song hits all the marks you want from a Primus joint; a stellar bassline, fascinating subject matter (it’s a tribute to the man famous for playing a Western baddie so bad he was just called The Bad, Lee Van Cleef), and it’s just so damned charming in its earnest bizarreness it’s hard not to love it. So how do you choose to rep that visually? Primus settled on the guy who wanted to tell the story of Lee Van Cleef zombying his way back into town and getting his own back on that shit eating Clint Eastwood guy (ok, so it’s supposed to be The Good and The Bad, but y’know). It’s one of those ideas that you probably wouldn’t jump to straight away and makes the combined experience of the song and the video that bit more surreal as a result, but at the same time it’s such a simple idea that you can’t help but go “oh yeah, why WOULDN’T that be the music video?” It really helps, though, that the animation style is perfectly suited to the lumbering, jerky movement zombies are known for- and so is the bassline, for that matter. I will also forever be amused at Tha L.V.C.’s attempt to down a shot of the good shit before slapping Eastwood about, only for his decayed neck muscles to let him down and make the act that bit more difficult then it would’ve been otherwise. Godspeed, Cleef, Godspeed.
Title: Wild Frontier
Artist: The Prodigy
It’s a story as old as time; man dares to think himself right to lord over Nature, killing God’s creatures seemingly to assert that supposed dominance, until Nature has enough and tells man where it can shove that sense of entitlement Also, Nature’s Wrath is dressed like it’s ready for a night out in Camden, for some reason. In essence, the video is a morality play, right down to making the unquestionable force of righteousness unsettling and fearsome in it’s own right. At first, the pairing of an undeniably hard hitting tech-breaks track and a traditionally “soft” animation style like Stop Motion doesn’t seem like that obvious of a pairing, and to some extent it feels like the style was most likely chosen by the band for the “gimmick” of it above anything else. In spite of that, though, it absolutely does work; there’s a certain timeless charm to the video that goes hand-in-hand with the morality play set up, right down to how cleanly the animation is handled and how extremely well crafted and designed the characters are. Lovingly animated animal giblets and pulse pounding music aside, the animation absolutely carries an atmosphere not that dissimilar to a warm, fuzzy little bit of light children's entertainment you’d find airing on BBC 1 in the seventies, and arguably that’s what makes the “don’t fuck with nature” message and the more tonally visceral bits really pop.
Title: Haunted
Artist: Mega Drive
This video has a similar thing going on to the one above in the sense that it shows the force of good to be fearsome- in this case downright terrifying in an almost Old Testament way- but it’s a very different scenario. The video takes a lot of cues from movies of the same era the song takes it’s musical inspiration from; innocent young women being preyed upon by depraved maniacs that want to kill them- or worse- being the most obvious one, although the integrated credits at the end could count too. Each of the three scenarios seem like they’re going to play out like the “First Victim” scene in a slasher flick, but the tables quickly turn on our three aforementioned maniacs when a gentleman in a denim jacket stops them mid depravity, taking the law into his own hands and dishing out karmic justice by doing unto them what they intended to do to their marks. Or, at least, WE see that; the maniacs and the victims apparently can’t see our dark hero, and from the outside it appears as though the maniacs turn their weapons on themselves of their own volition. It’s clear the denim jacketed man is a ghost and that he is “really there”, but the questions surrounding his apparent drive and purpose- seemingly to protect anyone that might fall victim to reprehensible circumstances- are what make the video so compelling.
Title: Extra
Artist: Ken Ishii
This one almost feels like a bit of a cop out, because it’s really not hard to see why it’s creepy; it feels like a primal reaction to the music, partially constructed images and ideas conjured by the music during a lazy listen instead of any real attempt to create a coherent narrative you can follow from start to finish. To simply label it as obtuse and creepy for the sake of being obtuse and creepy kind of undersells the video though, I feel; though the ideas aren’t noticeably connected and it feels very steam-of-consciousness, they are realised enough to create a coherent tone and atmosphere; one of a very bleak, very confusing world that feels vaguely like ours, but it very obviously not ours. It hits all the tropes and notes you’d expect of something that seems to be conveying a far flung future, but it’s not really cliche either. I mean, I’ve seen my fair share of neo futuristic cyberpunk thrillers, and I don’t think many of them included a knife wielding robot spider woman with it’s tits out and a baby hanging off of it. Nor did they include a small girl on a tricycle that has some sort of psychic link to a drunk half-girl-half-future-locomotive something or other in a bathroom stall gunning said spider robot woman. And even if they did, god knows how they’d tie it in with a man on a hovercycle wearing goggles and a t-shirt displaying the R&S Records logo, or any number of the weird bullshit that transpires in the 3:48 duration of this music video.
Is it redundant to mention that the director of this video was also the animation director on the movie adaptation of Akira? Yeah? Ok.
Title: Mr. Wobble’s Nightmare
Artist: Kid606
So. Yeah. Literal Zombie Fruit Ravers. This list certainly took a strange turn.
This video has two central things going for it; the utterly bizarre mix of animation styles overlaid atop some live action bits, and the prior mentioned narrative that involves a kindly Fine Wooden Axe maker named Mr. Wobble, seeking vengeance for his son’s death at the hands of what could be called a bowl of compost waiting to happen and an especially antagonistic Apple Cop who can’t seem to stop reminding him that, and I paraphrase, “[his] son is deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaddddddddddddddddddddddddddd.” It’s an utterly demented and completely nonsensical idea for an utterly demented wobbly techno track that, by all accounts, shouldn’t work. Like, at all. And yet, it makes perfect sense; all the animation quirks work together, the “narrative” is weirdly engaging, and somehow, someway, it completely works with the track. I can now no longer listen to this song without immediately thinking of a mighty and revenge-hungry citrus cleaving his way to glory (and trail mix), and that is not a statement that I have never expected to say about... anything. And that’s kind of it, really; a simple charm for a not-so-simple video. There's something poetic about that.
Title: State Of The Art
Artist: Gotye
So, one popular reading of this song is that it’s actively demonising electronic instruments and music as inherently soulless things that lack humanity, seemingly sapping it out of the people that listen to it and serving as a detriment to the art as a whole. The kind of rhetoric that most people know I absolutely abhor. It’s actually just about an organ from the 70s that Gotye’s parents bought when he was a kid, but the music video seems to use that interpretation as a base to build an interesting narrative; one wherein 1950s Americana: The Family buys a fictionalised version of that organ that turns out to be just a little bit too clever. In fact, it’s sentient, and is apparently hellbent on assimilating Papa Happy Days and his family into its very being. An idea that I’m sure strikes complete and total terror into the hearts people that have yet to discover any chords passed the third one. And certainly, the video has some very effectively creepy shots that the art style lends itself too very well- I especially like the brief shots of the family’s transformation, and the gradual evolution of the Cotillion from “an instrument” to “an ungodly abomination” is damn near like something out of a creature feature. But I can’t help but think it’s just kind of a cool idea. Like, best of luck on your mission to enslave the human race, Model D575. May your custom flute presets and three half dozen beats lead us towards a chrome-finished future filled with so much New Wave it wraps back around to being Old Wave.
Yeah.
Good note to end on I think.
~ Decon (20/10/15)