Music Videos You May Have Missed in 2015

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Bubblegum goddesses. Wannabe Debbie Harrys. Dystopian mental illnesses. Solo rock shows in a mystical desert landscape...These are the videos that stood out in 2015 for their strangeness, abstraction, and beauty. And good tunes, of course. 

1. Petite Noir - Chess

The Cape Town artist Petite Noir (Yannick Ilunga) sings cool, dramatic, hypnotic pop in what feels like a late-80s instructional VHS tape. The slowly bubbling (literally, bubbles) breakup song was the first single off Petite Noir’s first album, La Vie Est Belle / Life Is Beautiful. 

2. Son Lux - You Don't Know Me

God, don’t you hate it when your boyfriend doesn’t understand you’re a terrifying bubblegum goddess? “You Don’t Know Me,” starring Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany, is creepy, but somehow relatable. Ultimately, says director Nathan Johnson says the video wants to explore the “empty rituals” of relationships, and to a larger degree, religion. “You Don’t Know Me” comes off Son Lux’s (Ryan Lott’s) fourth studio album Bones. 

3. HONNE - Coastal Love

“Coastal Love” feels part fashion film, part white-collar crime, and part psychedelic deep-ocean love story. The words “I’ll be waiting for you, my love, on this New York City coast” play over images of a dark & dreamy Montauk motel. This is one of the few times I think, “If I’m going to pass out on the beach with a stranger, going in a lustful haze with a weird sea creature on my face might be the best way to do it.” “Coastal Love” comes off HONNE’s newest EP by the same name. 

4. ABRA - U Know

Abra’s woozy R & B is paired with a ghost/love story between the Awful Records’ it-girl and skater Lil Phillips. The DIY-feely music video is a collaboration with UNIF clothing, and comes off Abra’s first album Roses. 

5. Lower Dens - To Die in L.A.

Magic 8 balls, wannabe movie stars, Debbie Harry obsessions, and a dead buck floating in a swimming pool—such is the crazy world of “To Die in L.A.” by Lower Dens. The first single off Lower Dens’ second record Escape from Evil is a synth-rock dream of a vulnerable Los Angeles. 

6. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Can't Keep Checking My Phone

We start with the subtitle, “It’s one of those rare, unexplainable things,” which suits the video well, in the best way. The video—directed by Dimitri Basil—features a semi-sci-fi catalogue of mental illnesses and unexplained phenomena, including “Meteorite Sickness” and “Virtual Gender Disphoria.” The song, which is full of catchy beats and seemingly-simple lyrics, becomes complicated against the “trading deck” of the abstract, the dystopian, and the strange. Can’t Keep Checking My Phone can be found on Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s newest album Multi-Love.

7. Hurts - Lights

“Lights” is the age-old tale of being too fucked up and too alone in a half-populated bar. This time, instead of the classic random hook-up we get a graceful dance between matador and bull. This bar’s patrons also include a woman wrapped in a giant plastic bag and a zombie baseball player. “Lights” was the first single off the Manchester duo Hurts’s third album Surrender. 

8. The Soft Moon - Far

Is there anything more angsty than dark alleyways, disfigured men, and speeding down the 101 in a blue-and-red psychedelic daze? Dark and nostalgic, the video doesn’t lose its depth. “‘Far’ is the realm where unconscious desires reign, and the darkest tendencies take root and flourish. There, the ‘hIDeous’ clone assaults the ego, the shadow self stalks the night, and a third Shroud embodies the two hemispheres locked in perpetual battle,” director duo Y2K explains. “Far” comes off Soft Moon’s album Deeper, which was released this February.

9. Alex G - Brite Boy

A soft tune called “Brite Boy” off Alex G’s newest album entitled Beach Music might suggest happy, carefree vibes. Instead, we get a dark cartoon by Elliot Bech, featuring cemetery rituals, desert funerals, and a watertower that welcomes you to a ghost town called “Fuck.” Beach Music marks Alex Ginnascoli’s seventh full-length album, and he gets weirder and darker every time. “Brite Boy” zines made by Bech himself will be sold along Alex G’s next tour.

10. LA Priest - Oino

It’s a strange desert landscape where curious beasts lurk in the canyons, and Sam Eastgate (aka Samuel Dust) plays high-pitched riffs in the desolate dirt. Directed by his brother Isaac Eastgate, the video was apparently inspired by their granddad’s story of “a man imprisoned in the desert who escapes by singing to a wizard.” I feel the mystic vibes. “Oino” was LA Priest’s debut single for a solo album eight years in the making. His album Inji is out now. 

11. Silicon - God Emoji

A papier maché robot drives out to the middle of the forest to lay down catchy beats on the keyboard and the drums. Meanwhile, a weird dismembered pixelated head floats about an apartment building while a soft voice sings, “Don’t wanna go out on a Saturday night.” “God Emoji” is weird, but sticks with you through its abstractions and grooves. New Zealand multi-instrumentalist Kody Nielson’s debut album Personal Computer is out now.

12. Hot Chip - Need You Now

Hot Chip’s newest album, Why Make Sense? fits well with the music video for “Need You Now.” It’s strange, abstract, cyclical, and convoluted. A man runs after his double (or is his double chasing him?). He disappears, reappears, runs away, and is chased by a third double. Ultimately, however, the complex and the metaphysical fade into a simple story of refusing to let love go, as the words, “Need you now,” repeat themselves in the background. “Need You Know” is off the British electronic music band’s sixth album. 

13. Julia Holter - Silhouette

Julia Holter’s “Silhouette” is jumpy, grainy, and indulgent in its shadows. It is also sentimental, nostalgic, and a melancholy kind of sweet. Holter sings, “He can hear me sing, though he is far, I'll never lose sight of him, a silhouette.” The song and the video remind me how love can make you crazy--sprawled out across your desk with nothing to do but turn the lights on and off, close and open the blinds, and write clichés about him in your diary. Holter’s latest record Have You in my Wilderness was released this September.

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Text by Keely Shinners

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"Small Tits Big Dreams" By Tea Hacic and Milan Based Art Duo No Text Azienda

text by Tea Hacic

When I was just a little kid I learned a song in music class called “Big Big Dreams.”  The chorus was, “big big dreams, lots of big dreams, things I wanna do some day, big big dreams, lots of big dreams, big dreams are OK.” I went home that day and sang the song to my mother and told her that I had written it. I knew that she knew that I didn’t, but I lied about it anyway. I saw shame in her eyes as I sang the phrases. I think of that moment often, about how embarrassing that must have been for her, to think she gave birth to a shithead. When I look back on that moment I wish it hadn’t happened, because since that moment I’ve tried not to lie. If that moment hadn’t happened, I may have become a talented liar by now. Maybe I’d be an entrepreneur or at least run a shabby-chic (yet efficient) Airbnb in LES that always has beer in the fridge and beautiful neighbors who are DTF. But I fucked that up.

SMALL TITS BIG DREAMS is a story about impostor syndrome. It’s about finding yourself in a new country, situation, job or curse you can’t find your way out of. You don’t know who you need to be so you violently push yourself to the limits in order to find out. It’s about dating an illiterate drug dealer only so he’ll invite you to parties and then hating all of your clothes so much that you take them off once you get there. It’s about having a goal and doing whatever you must to reach it, even if “whatever you must” means stealing your best friend’s wallet. It’s about Milan, a city that was sleeping until noon, spending all its money on shoes and falling into k-holes by midnight. But the city is changing … !

There is a new collective in Milan messing stuff up, flipping all the pizzas upside-down, cheese side on the ground, turning the aesthetic around! They are bored of fashion parties, fancy aperitivos and bars that exist only to show football games. They are inventing a new reality in the city that never weeps!

NO TEXT AZIENDA are a dude duo with a rebellious artistic agenda. Part of the GrossoMondo movement, a creative agency and magazine (with Yosephine Melfi and Carolina Amoretti), NO TEXT are video makers and “culture-jammers.”  I first met them years ago on the streets of Pta. Ticinese by accident and immediately felt compelled to stalk interview them. A lot has changed since then (mostly, my hair) but they’re still best friends (and according to half the city, a gay couple). Alvin Sonic and Ignoro Disoncelli are the types of swoon-worthy boys who seem like they get twelve hours of beauty sleep, then skateboard from bed to a swimming pool and back to bed. In reality, they work so hard they show up to your SMALL TITS BIG DREAMS shooting straight from a party—they haven’t eaten for days but they let you steal their first meal (a Big Mac) right out of their hands, for the sake of a scene. There’s a reason these kids have worked for Sterven Jonger and Nike! You’ll see!

If you’ve ever found yourself roaming the streets like a lunatic, searching for meaning (or at least a Zara sale), this film is for you. If you’ve caught yourself wondering when everyone will be as obsessed with you as you are, this film is for you. If you’re an exhibitionist, this film is for you (and so is WOVO a concept sex shop in Milan run by the film’s stylist)! If you want to hear an original track by RIVA this film is lasagna for your ears! If you love pigeons, hate taxes, feel hungry all the time, miss your parents, fantasize about your professors, think coconut water tastes like cum…this film was made for you! So what are you waiting for?

No matter who you are or what you’re into, remember Big Dreams Are OK…as long as you’re honest about them. 

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Text by Tea Hacic. Follow Tea on Instagram here. Follow Autre Magazine: @AUTREMAGAZINE

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