Feast your eyes (and/or ears) – to celebrate NZ Music Month, we tasked 95bFM broadcaster and Flicks contributor Sarah Thomson with picking twenty-three of the finest recent music vids from around Aotearoa. Phew. In alphabetical order…
AJA & Byllie-Jean – ‘Te Iho’
Winner of the 2022 APRA Maioha Award, Te Iho describes the nigh-indescribable: the essence and transmission of indigenous female power. Meetinghouse Records (AJA, Mara TK, MĀ) collaborator Tola Newbery and artist Israel Birch match the song’s descriptions of radiating power with projections of light, reflections and beautiful symbols of ‘awa o Atua’. Plus: the 808 bass here absolutely hoons.
AJA on Spotify | Byllie-Jean on Spotify
Amamelia – ‘Colourbox’
Possibly my favourite video (shhhh) of this gigantor list, digital genius Simon Ward’s clip for Amamelia’s Colourbox is pure low-poly joy. Referencing both PlayStation Ape Escape and experimental filmmaker/sculptor Len Lye (!), get this third-person player piece of native flora / fauna happiness in your eyeballs immediately.
P.S. Here’s a pic of Amamelia and Colourbox vocalist Madison Van Staden performing at the 2022 Student Radio Network Awards dressed as the video’s human protagonist:
Aaaaahhhh ♥️ @Mealy_Worm pic.twitter.com/JuPM6o9YFT
— Simon Ward (@simonmward) November 19, 2022
Amamelia on Spotify | Amamelia on Bandcamp
Avantdale Bowling Club – ‘Friday Night @ The Liquor Store’
No one does brutal social commentary quite like Tom Scott. This clip, described as being “directed by alcoholism”, was shot on 16mm by YGB collaborators Tak Soropa and Luca Macioce. A powerful and truly localised display of alcohol use/abuse to match Scott’s “steel-cap tap dance on bourbon-soaked floor”. Bonus marks for making Julien Dyne drum on a booze pallet riser outside a Liquor Centre™.
Avantdale Bowling Club on Spotify | Avantdale Bowling Club on Bandcamp
Brandn Shiraz – ‘outside outside’ feat. Diggy Dupé
Director Bryce Tobin artfully paints Tāmaki Makaurau as a series of interstitial outdoor spaces: both apocalyptic and beautiful; scorched and fertile. The criminally under-rated Brandn Shiraz more than holds court in this video landscape, joined by Diggy Dupé on this track from Shiraz’s 2023 self-titled debut EP.
Brandn Shiraz on Spotify | Brandn Shiraz on Bandcamp
Bub – ‘Dreams’
Supergroup Bub (members of Dateline, Racing, Tiny Ruins, The Sour… to name but a few of their other projects) star in a fishing show parody buoyed by some of the country’s finest acting talent (Scotty Cotter! Jordan Mooney!). A potentially risky concept pays off courtesy of Liv McClymont’s direction and Sports Teamer Callum Devlin’s editing being the perfect vehicle for singer/songwriter Priya Sami’s magnetic sense of humour.
Bub on Spotify | Bub on Bandcamp
D.C. Maxwell – ‘The Leading Man’
Quite literally theatrical, Maxwell’s debut single channels the alcohol fumes and bodily fluids seeping from antecedents like Brel, Hazlewood, and Gainsbourg—merchants of depression, desperation, and cowboy camp. Fraser Chatham’s clip gives Maxwell just the right piss-bottle-brown hued stage upon which to showcase their propulsive performance style and tale of booze and blood. Encore.
D.C. Maxwell on Spotify | D.C Maxwell on Bandcamp
DBLDBL – ‘Big Mike’ feat. L V J & PollyHill
One of the older releases on this list but a ‘must-include’ purely to remark: gosh, that Frances Carter knows how to shoot a video. Knowing that the best way to platform the incredible lyrical wit provided by the Holy Trinity of DBLDBL, L V J and PollyHill is a high-contrast, black & white performance clip, Carter lets the talent hit hardest—accompanied by crisp setups and winking behind the scenes flourishes. Watch the clip, fall in love, buy the shirt.
DBLDBL on Spotify | DBLDBL on Bandcamp
Deva Mahal – ‘Run Me Through’
Described by Mahal, who served as creative director on the Naomi Haussmann clip, as: “me and my bad-ass bounty hunter crew […] roaming the countryside in pursuit of the land’s most wanted bounties,” Run Me Through makes use of the stunning landscapes of Aotearoa as ‘Old West’ as successfully as Hollywood so often does. Next up: a full-length film about this crew, please Deva.
Deva Mahal on Spotify | Deva Mahal on Bandcamp
Ebony Lamb – ‘Take My Hands At Night’
Storied music video director/cinematographer Ezra Simons gets slightly Habicht/Campion as they shoot Ebony Lamb on 16mm in a variety of beautiful, high-contrast setups for the first single from Lamb’s forthcoming new work, produced by Bic Runga and Kody Nielson. Big swooning visuals for a big swoon sound.
Ebony Lamb on Spotify | Ebony Lamb on Bandcamp
Grecco Romank – ‘Romance Writer’
A softer number from Tāmaki’s premier dungeon power-techno three-piece, Romance Writer sees director Britt Walton assist the trio in going “full method, engaging in an elaborate electronic pantomime”. Making full use of the Greccos’ charisma (Mikey Grecco as the track’s titular writer—hoo boy), as well as draping them and guest pianist Hermione Johnson in clothing styled/provided by the iconic Kristine Crabb, this clip comes at you like a Mills & Boon written by Visage.
Grecco Romank on Spotify | Grecco Romank on Bandcamp
Guardian Singles – ‘Manic Attraction’
Painstakingly rotoscoped for 248+ hours by director/producer/animator Luke McPake, certain members of Tāmaki Makaurau/Kirikiriroa group Guardian Singles may have confided that the clip for Manic Attraction is “the coolest thing we’ve ever been involved with”. No mean feat when your tracks are as angular and intelligent as they come and your band itself includes members of SoccerPractise, Green Grove, Na Noise and The Coolies. Here’s McPake with more on the clip’s creation.
Guardian Singles on Spotify | Guardian Singles on Bandcamp
Half Hexagon – ‘Ism (Live)’
Double dipping on Guardian Singles’ Yolanda Fagan and Avantdale’s Julien Dyne, here joined by the kosmische analog synth noodling of James Milne (Lawrence Arabia). Sometimes the best music videos are honest attempts at capturing the magic of ‘liveness’. Filmed on equipment that feels suspiciously like the vintage VHS kit used by Milne and James Dansey (Spring Break) to create the wonderful Goin’ Live with Chabs & Milky series, this live cut of Ism was also live vision-switched (edited) by streaming guru Hugh Sundae.
Half Hexagon on Spotify | Half Hexagon on Bandcamp
Hans. – ‘Be Grateful’
Another ever-so-slightly older clip, another ‘must include’. Kerikeri/Korean music mogul Hans. delivers this clip with collaborators Owen Rivers and Luke Park for their own creative collective of similar name. Cast in the video as a mogul of a different kind of [ahem] entertainment, Hans. gives a performance as brilliantly bratty as the song itself. Is this video safe to watch at work? Debatable. Is it great? Yes.
Hans. on Spotify | Hans. on Soundcloud
Jazmine Mary – ‘Wet Mouth’
The second single from the artist’s forthcoming second album, ‘Dog’, as well as their second clip co-directing with Sports Team’s Annabel Kean. Jazmine Mary’s music has real heft to it, yet never feels without a sense of potential reckless abandon—perfectly matched here by the artist barrelling the lens, exhibiting utmost control while their motorcycle hoons through empty radiata pine forest roads, demanding: “so, get your wet mouth and put it on me”. Delicious.
Jazmine Mary on Spotify | Jazmine Mary on Bandcamp
Jujulipps – ‘Saucy’
For an artist with only two officially released singles, the undeniable buzz surrounding Jujulipps is no mistake. An incredible live performer, captured here by Alex Hargreaves’ direction and a creative team including Mary Adeosun, hair and makeup artist Paidamoyo Machakaire, as well as the artist themselves. Jujulipps invokes mythic figures Rapunzel and Medusa in Saucy, dripping with feminine power and propelling truths: “I am the sauce, you gotta know / It’s the last time I spell that out”.
Jujulipps on Spotify | Jujulipps on Bandcamp
Leaping Tiger – ‘Gooey’
The in-demand Oscar Keys shares directing duties with the artist here, as Jacob Park (Leaping Tiger) shares an all-too-real tale of the impossibility of avoiding “sticky, shameless” feelings in a social media saturated age. Stunning use of colour links several high concept set-ups, enhanced by Ezra Simons’ camerawork and colourist Matic Prusnik’s tone execution. Jealousy is green, after all.
Leaping Tiger on Spotify | Leaping Tiger on Bandcamp
MELODOWNZ – ‘Pray For More’ feat. Lisi & Mikey Dam
Director Connor Pritchard’s mastery of classic hip-hop music video film language means they excel at placing the kind of high production values viewers associate with big international artists onto domestic artists telling domestic stories. Well deserving of such high production values, MELODOWNZ is joined here by Hawera-born Mikey Dam and Aotearoa-born/QLD-based Lisi. In the hook-laden Pray For More, Pritchard turns Auckland’s St. Matthews (feat. Avondale Intermediate Choir); Silo Park; Symonds Street Cemetery; and a Karangahape Road loft into powerful symbolic sites for our three artists’ narratives.
MELODOWNZ on Spotify | MELODOWNZ on Bandcamp
Pickle Darling – ‘Head Terrarium’
Another listicle favourite, this time featuring multiple kinds of puppetry (!) and the truly powerful Ōtautahi combination of Lukas Mayo (Pickle Darling) and director Martin Sagadin. As best described by Mayo themselves: “We talked a lot about movies where the world kind of ‘breaks’ for a moment, like Persona or Donkey Skin or Synecdoche, New York, where you kind of see ‘beyond’ the movie every now and then and it’s like ‘what is going on there?’ […] That was kind of the only brief I gave, and I also said ‘just make something incredibly weird’ and they did.” Nailed it.
Pickle Darling on Spotify | Pickle Darling on Bandcamp
RIOT GULL – ‘ROUTINE FOR CHAMPS’
So, you’re a music fan? TELL ME MORE. The best named four-piece from the world’s seabird capital deliver a cut-and-paste fever clip, co-directed by the band’s Madison Kelly and fellow Ōtepoti agitator Liam Hoffman (Night Lunch). Distilling the prevalence of testosterone grind culture to a series of ridiculous symbols (handshakes; tie waggles; smiling squats) and key phrases (“Manifest!”; “What’s yr routine?”) Riot Gull’s performance skewers power poseurs in Routine For Champs, deftly assisted by editor Hoffman’s surrealist cut-up aesthetic.
RIOT GULL on Spotify | RIOT GULL on Bandcamp
Shannon Matthew Vanya – ‘Saw It In Your Eyes’ feat. IVES
Director/cinematographer Ezra Simons’ third appearance on this list, this time providing Shannon Matthew Vanya with an homage to the spirit of demo-recording and early ‘80s yacht rock. Warm performances, great art direction and winking shot choices show a caring sense of humour here, poking gentle fun at that thing we (and also, as they sing here, potentially the artist themselves) all take both far-too-seriously and as a great-deal-of-fun: music itself. Lovely.
Shannon Matthew Vanya on Spotify | Shannon Matthew Vanya on Instagram
Vanessa Worm – ‘Lost Memories’
From this year’s ‘Mosaics’, an album Tessa Forde (Vanessa Worm) made at their family home in Southland, the video for lead single Lost Memories shows the world what fans have long known from the artist’s live performances: Worm is unafraid; Worm is brutally honest; Worm makes bloody great dance music. Director Ruby Harris beautifully captures what makes Worm truly singular here, ably assisted by Kristin Li’s art direction and Nadia Darby’s deft edit. Grief isn’t the end—it’s fertiliser.
Vanessa Worm on Spotify | Vanessa Worm on Bandcamp
Vera Ellen – ‘Homewrecker’
The first single from this year’s ‘Ideal Home Noise’ LP, the video for Homewrecker casts the artist as an aging lothario—one lifted directly from Since I Met You Baby, the only MTV-era music video ever made by ratpacker Dean Martin. Vera’s ‘Deano’ lurches through the Albert River-directed clip cutting swaggering shapes with five rather static models across the rooftops of Te Whanganui-a-Tara’s Athfield Home and Office. Ellen’s huge command of melancholic melody matches the clip’s bittersweet delusional tone perfectly. Whose home really gets wrecked after all, someone else’s—or your own?
Vera Ellen on Spotify | Vera Ellen on Bandcamp
Womb – ‘Oceans’
Another appearance for director Martin Sagadin, this time working closely with the Forrester/Brown siblings of Te Whanganui-a-Tara’s Womb. The group’s music can feel incredibly intimate, at times overwhelmingly so, and Sagadin’s slo-mo treatment of Oceans is one that respects and reflects the track’s swooning, slow build. Intercut footage of the group, both performing music and creating art together, with a narrative of two lovers in moments of joy and pause—all connected by Georgette Brown’s heartbeat of a drumline, Loren Kett’s tranquil colour grade, and the clip’s use of water.
Womb on Spotify | Womb on Bandcamp
Extra Treat: Waiata Anthems ’23
Rats to all this strict music video carry on, sometimes all you really want is a short music documentary series to believe in: this one courtesy of the excellent Waiata Anthems—which, this year, features MOHI, Chad Chambers, Nikau Grace, William Singe and Corrella embarking on journeys of personal discovery as they breathe new life into their work through the use of te reo Māori. With accompanying live performance clips and lyric explainers, dive into the full series here.
