On a week that brought political change to the UK; the last seven days came also with a landslide of new promo videos, including tried and tested favourites in our loop that finally have been put into images. AVI BUFFALO’s excellent presentation song ‘What’s In It For’ was one of them. THE BESNARD LAKES’ ‘Albatross’; THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS’ martial arts choreography in ‘Your Hands (Together)’ and JOANNA NEWSOM’s live presentation of ‘81’ on the Jools Holland show.
Aussie expats LIARS dropped ‘The Overachievers’ as the second promo out of their concept album ‘Sisterworld’. Plus, two of the stars of next week’s Pavement-curated ATP festival delivered brand new clips: Post-punk legends THE FALL Giving sings of creative reborn with their latest opus ‘Your Future Our Clutter’, where ‘Bury Pts. 1-3’ is taken from. And Swedish experimental duo WILDBIRDS & PEACEDRUMS announcing the arrival of two brand new EP’s ‘with voices’. The first one called ‘Retina’ can be sampled here.
KELE Okerere from Bloc Party began a solo career with an electo-infused pop number that sounds like it has borrowed the hook from ‘Bodyrox’. Also in the UK, veteran electronic duo CHEMICAL BROTHERS launched ‘Swoon’ the second video from their new album; whereas apromising newcomer PRIMARY 1, followed-up a duet with Nina Pearsson with a track called ‘Princess’, recalling David Bowie’s vocal style as much as the former.
In the States, two of the most anticipated albums of the moment kept on producing new audiovisual work. THE NATIONAL with a exclusive session for ‘Anyone’s Ghost’ , another highlight from their excellent fifth record ‘High Violet’. Also, BAND OF HORSES kept on plugging their imminent ‘Infinite Arms’ by putting highlight ‘NW Apt’ on Images, following the epic landscape style of their former clip for ‘Cumpliments’. The heavily hyped aussies TAME IMPALA also gave us an excellent video for their new ‘Solitude Is Bliss’ track.
Other Much hyped about bands such as the Basque Country’s DELOREAN cooked some more retina food. ‘Grow’ is the second track taken off their summery ‘Subiza’ . Jagjaguwar’s supergroup GAYNGS revisited the 80’s with a music and video recreation of Godley & Crème’s iconic changing faces promo for ‘Cry’. In the meantime, more 80’s revisionists, Swedish combo O’SPADA was back with ‘Pay Off’.
And on a glimpse at the Urban world, BEYONCE showed she has learnt a lot from her collaboration with Lady Gaga in new single ‘Why Don’t You Love Me’. SADE managed to impress everyone looking like the hottest 50 year old woman ever in ‘Babyfather’ and up and coming rapper PILL kept on showcasing new material through this promo for ‘OK Denn’.
Among the week’s free stuff, hotly tipped duo SLEIGH BELLS gave away ‘Tell ‘Em’ as a warm-up for their debut ‘Treats’, to be released via M.I.A.’s label. Nu shoegaze, Secret Machines spin-off SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS anticipated their second work with the free download of ‘Babelonia’ and WEIRD WIVES, another spin-off band this time of Surfer Blood, put their first 2 EP’s available for everyone.
Interpol returned with new freebie track ‘Lights’. So did Sufjan Stevens labelmate FOL CHEN, who gave away a full EP worth of new music called ‘In Ruins’.
In the mixtape department, San Francisco gloom mongers oOoOO have compiled a brand new one for Actual pain, that includes Soul & Disco beats by the likes of S.O.S Band or Barbara Mason, as well as a brand new track of the band. 4AD is giving its summer sampler with recent hits by Ariel Pink’s Haunted Grafitti, The National, etc.
Deerhunter’s Unstoppable BRADFORD COX offered the vol. 36 of his Micromix as a download through his blog. Elsewhere, Hip-hop star THE GAME prepared ‘The Red Room mixtape’ as a warm-up for his new album and Argentinean nu-cumbia DJ EL REMOLON gave shape to the ninth instalment of ZZK label’s mix.
In the big screens, a few interesting surprises hit our theatres. Best of them was the aclaimed Greek arthouse film ‘DOGTOOTH’, a bleak story about a family who try and protect their kids from exposure to the external world by creating a world of myths, lies and miseducation. Original, disturbing and very recommendable; it deservedly won last year’s ‘Un Certain Regard’s’ trophy at Cannes.
Threading in similar dIsfunctional family waters, Todd Solondz revisited the characters of his classic ‘Happiness’ two decades afterwards with a different and impressive cast in ‘LIFE DURING WARTIME’. Highly stylized, the results were not as shocking and mind-blowing as its predecessor, but it has managed to put Solondz back in the right path, after a string of failed attempts.
Disappointment of the week, though, went to ‘IRON MAN 2′, which in true Hollywood sequel manner manages to lose the accomplishments achieved by the first and throws itself into ‘Transformers’ territory, much to the boredom of the viewer. Robert Downey-Jr abuses again of his tongue-n-cheek acting persona with tiresome results.