Rob Masters

Let's watch this one before I talk about it. Here is "Only You" by Little Mix and Cheat Codes from 2018. This one seems a little sad on the surface (especially given the song is about after a break-up), but I choose to interpret it as a beginning, not an ending. I can see our heroine spending many more hours at beaches, around dusk, when most people have left, and spending quiet quality time with her partner. You can see that neither wants to be apart - but they must be, at least for a little while. Let's rewind a little though - what just happened there? Why do they need to be apart?  The way I see it, the chlorinated pool water could not have been good for something adapted to the sea, so it would have done quite some harm - and getting them out again would only have stopped things getting worse. You can see that they are in great pain after being lifted from the pool. To allow them to heal, actual seawater would be needed - and so our hero got them there, and is pr...

We have visited the work of Canadian band Delerium before. With rich musical influences and samples from all over, they are one of the great EDM/EA groups. They also tend towards amazingly great genre videos. This is another of them. We've got an ice demon, a beautiful lady, and a brave warrior mage intent on releasing her. But is it all as it seems? Maybe, maybe not. One of the wonderful things about this video is the ambiguity that it contains. We are left with a fragment of a story that we arrived to late to see the start of, and have left too soon to see the end.  Enjoy the mystery of "Incantation" from the 1994 album Semantic Spaces, by Derlerium.

Running somewhat late this week, but here we are. Time for some more Lindsey Stirling, and a dramatic fairytale that  echoes back to an earlier video from one of her earlier albums.  Here is "Lost Girls" from the 2017 album "Artemis" by Lindsey Stirling. 

 This evening we stayed longer than usual at the Scarborough Sunset Markets , and got to see the fire-dancing side of the performance group  Serpent of Fire .  They were great fun to watch, and were more than happy for me to take some photos of them. So have a look at these very cool folks!

So this week we are back with another Lindsey Stirling effort, with vocals by Dia Frampton (no relation to Peter).  This time we go full animation and down the daikaiju alleyway in a delightful little romp that is a healthy antidote to the current times. There are tropes a-plenty, and many of them averted, inverted, or otherwise played with, and, when it comes down to it, it is just plain fun. Enjoy "We Are Giants" by Lindsey Stirling (featuring Dia Frampton) from 2015.

You can always rely on Swedish House Mafia for solid dance/trance track with a sponsored music video. And you can rely on a certain vodka brand to throw lots of money at all sorts of videos. In this case we have a robotic avatar greyhound race, a bunch of escapees from Bladerunner, and a plot that really goes nowhere very fast. Much like the music, really. But, it does technically fall into my remit, so here is 2012's "Greyhound" by Swedish House Mafia. 

Let's leap back to the mid 90's and some synthpop from one of the great bands (and composers) of the 80s and 90s ... and who are still releasing new albums even now. For the video, we get an Oni and a westernised ... something? A small god? A sorcerer? Anyway we get some very silly wire-work, even dodgier magic effects, and a no-contact fight scene. And a rather standoffish romance. It is all gloriously over the top, extremely silly, and still works quite magnificently. Massively appropriating all sorts of culture, but it somehow does not feel mean-spirited in any way.  So here is 1994's "Always" from Erasure. 

Back to 1999, and one that I am sure is going to have some folks convinced that I've gone even further off the deep end. Let's take on the music first - it is a fairly basic boy-band dance track (technically R&B - believe it or not), typical of the late 90s.  Very slick sound production, but could pretty much be a drop in replacement for any number of other tunes. The  surprisingly clever lyrics are another kettle of fish. The song itself is essentially a fan shout-out - a thank-you note from the band itself. The central message being that the music industry is a major drag, but that the fans are the ones who make it worthwhile. (More recently Lady Gaga recorded a similar sentiment in "Applause".) The video is (to say the least) over the top. Giant spaceship, synchrodancing robots, hoverboard dodgeball against a holographic opponent, space fighter battles, and the obligatory mass dance scene. And yet, it still somehow makes a story out of it all (mostly), and the ...

Let's say hello to Miike Snow again. This time we get all the great Bond tropes. Until things take a very fabulous turn. SFF? Well, we've got death rays, so let's say 'Yes'. Keep your eyes open for the guards with an amazing sense of rhythm, and some of the greatest dance moves you'll never see in a Bond movie. Also stick around for The Return of the Spurned Partner! With no further ado, here is 2016's "Genghis Khan" from Miike Snow.

Let's get one thing out of the way straight up. The 80's were an awesome breeding ground for genre music videos, and I believe that it was not until the late 2000's that we saw that level of greatness return. That's about 20 years. So here we have the one band playing the mid 40s, 60s, and 80s. About 20 years apart. And all in the same bar, with the same waitress ... and no one seems to notice that they don't fit in. Would they be playing the 2000's as well? And what are they? Time-travellers? Immortals? Either way they have some sort of SEP field going on. Let's take a look at our mysterious band and waiter, shall we? Here's Kajagoogoo, and 1983's "Too Shy".

Hope everyone knows where their towels are! Let's have a look at what must be a made-for-MTV bit of popcorn. Despite sounding like the name of a group, this is mostly a solo effort - with Mani Hoffman chipping in to help complete the work. Although utterly popcorn, it is also dangerously infectious, and is altogether far too dancable. With that warning in mind, clear a space around you, and prepare to be taken over by The Superman Lovers (featuring Mani Hoffman) and "Starlight", from 2001.

Delerium are another band that frequently venture into the the realms of genre for their videos. This one is one of their more nightmarish, featuring a man drowning in air. As a bonus we get the haunting voice of Rani Kamal - the daughter of Australian adopted musical treasure Kamahl. So shiver at the video, and be entranced by the music of 2001's "Underwater" by Delerium.

So we've had a couple of rather sombre weeks, let's pick up the pace with a track that we first encountered via the game Just Dance. This one had quite an energetic set of moves, making it great for an aerobic workout, the visuals were (ahem) cool. In fact, before we go on, here they are: The song itself is rather good, too. Intriguing lyrics, Sia's amazing voice, and a compelling dance beat. So we went looking for the original video, and what a treat it is. Let's open with some Bronze-age hunters, proto-Vikings perhaps, chasing a wolf across the ice. A great visual statement, hints of the wolf having already been wounded, and a full-team dog sled in full flight to round out the imagery. So, very cool, but not especially SFFish. Right up until the chase hits the rocks, and the hunters think they've got the wolf cornered. Because then something weird happens. With with music beat becoming visualised in the rocks and ice, you'd think that it was just...

Let us turn to the more mainstream world of pop, and a bit of comedy. Dark Horse, by Katy Perry (modulo various claims by christian rap/hiphop artists) is not what I would call musically exciting. It is, however, extremely saleable, helped in no small part by this wonderfully comedic/horror video. Let's face it - if you took what our sorcerer queen does at face value it would be dark, dark horror. Imagine it re-worked by Hammer Films, for example. But the bright lights, the goofy outcomes, and the over-the-top sets and costumes manage to overcome the core of horror, and create something that is undeniably hilarious. So, without any further discussion, here's the video. >

This week, let's travel to Iceland (or Spain) and take a look at one of Bjork's creations.

This week we return to Lindsey Stirling, this time visiting a steampunk Wild West with "Roundtable Rival". A brilliant bit of storytelling, some wonderful costuming and choreography, all rounded out with magnificent acting. Her instrument, incidentally, is a Real Thing - not a prop! It appears to be a Romanian horn-violin (or possibly a Stroh violin).

This week let's go to Japan, and an instrumental dance track " 自主制作アニメーション『the TV show』" (2009) , directed by  SUGIMOTO Kousuke and music by MANABE Takayuki . The music is frantic synth - almost chiptune - with an accelerating beat. The video is something special. After a test pattern opening we see a videowall with (presumably) Manabe and Sugimoto at the controls. We then dive into the video stream an see each screen from the wall as videos nested inside each other... until the fourth wall fractures and one of the videos breaks into another. After that, things get complicated, but helpfully colour-coded for your convenience. Featuring tropes from almost every genre of TV, and the chaos caused by the genre boundaries melding, it is a sight to behold. A visit to Sugimoto's site has dozens more of his animations - all quite amazing! https://sugimotokosuke.com/contents/works.html