4K Music Videos

Despite loving the imperfect aesthetic you get from old VHS it is also very pleasing when you come across bright and shiny cleaned up versions of things you are used to seeing in analogue form.

These days it’s not just old films that are getting digitally restored. Old archive footage is often cleaned up when it’s included in films or documentaries, such as The Beatles Shea Stadium concert that appeared in Ron Howard’s Eight Days a Week.

The original 16mm rushes of Elton John’s music video for I’m Still Standing were tracked down to use in the final scene of Rocketman. In the film Elton was erased and replaced by Taron Egerton in a re-edited version of the video. As all the rushes were digitised it made sense for the video to undergo the full 4K restoration treatment at the same time.

Other classic 80’s music videos that have been remastered at 4K include Take on Me by A-Ha and Last Christmas by Wham!

Elton John// I'm Still Standing

A-Ha// Take on Me

Wham!// Last Christmas

King Krule

King Krule’s first new music since 2017 album The Ooz appeared at the tail end of last year as part of a 15 minute short film Hey World featuring 4 new tracks.

I love the extremely lo-fi nature of the VHS shot film. Parts of it remind me of my own hi-8 experiments from 20 years ago.

King Krule// Hey World

Andy Hague// UNTITLED (hi-8 experiments)

Favourite Music of 2019

My favourite album of 2019 (and my favourite cover artwork too) was Thom Yorke's Anima, definitely his strongest solo album and up there with the best of Radiohead.

And this is my favourite music video..
All shot from the POV of a LEGO train. Genius!

Anna Meredith// Paramour

Here's a playlist of my fave tracks:

Orla Gartland

Yn Mor deservedly picked up a couple of awards at the Cornwall Film Festival in November; Best Regional Short & Best Ensemble Performance. I got to team up once again with Director Zoe Alker and DOP Charlotte Croft recently to cut the music video for Orla Gartland’s Figure it Out.

Orla has a massive fan base and the video has already clocked up 30K views on YouTube after it's first couple of days of release. I’m used to cutting shorts that are rarely seen outside of film festivals so it’s great to cut something that gets so much exposure for a change.

Orla Gartland// Figure it Out

James C. Lyons

Here's a music video I cut recently for my friend Jimmy Lyons featuring stunning Aerial photography of the Portbury Wharf coastline by Ammonite Aerial.

James C. Lyons// Selfless

Thom Yorke

Thom Yorke’s fourth solo outing ANIMA is his strongest yet and feels less like a side project and more an extension of the themes and cutting edge sounds he’s been exploring with Radiohead since heading away from the mainstream in 2000 with Kid A.

I’ve said before that the films I find myself drawn to are often those that blur the line between the conscious and unconscious (awake/ asleep). Films such as The Double, After Hours, the majority of David Lynch films. Watching the Paul Thomas Anderson directed short film that accompanies ANIMA it struck me that there is an overlap with my taste in music. The film plays out like a fever dream starting with a smartly choreographed scene of tube passengers falling asleep. Much of Thom/ Radiohead’s output seems to exist in a dream like void that leaves you trapped with a paranoid feeling of not knowing what’s real and what’s imagined. As he sings in How to Disappear Completely from Kid A; ‘I’m not here. This isn’t happening.’

Kasper Häggström

I was lucky enough to catch a new BUG show last week at the BFI, presented by Adam Buxton. It was a great chance to catch up on some fantastic music videos from 2018 that had passed me by. My favourite was this one by Kasper Häggström for the Kelly Lee Owen track Throwing Lines.

Kelly Lee Owen// Throwing Lines

Favourite Music of 2018

My favourite album of the year was Neneh Cherry's Broken Politics, her second album to be produced by Kieran Hebden (Four Tet). 4 tracks from that album spearhead a playlist that is this year dominated by female artists, accounting for around two thirds of the tracks.

My favourite music video was the incredibly simple and very charming TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME by The 1975.

Favourite Music of 2017

American Teen - Khalid
Dangerous - The xx
Home - Joe Goddard
Since You've Been Gone - The Allergies
No Roots - Alice Merton
Get it Together - Drake
Cuffed - Nick Hakim
Lush - Four Tet
Them Changes - Thundercat
Location - Khalid
Passionfruit - Drake
Uh Uh - Thundercat
SW9 9SL - Four Tet
Outlier - Bonobo
Young, Dumb & Broke - Khalid
Say Something Loving - The xx
Children - Joe Goddard
(How Could Anybody) Feel at Home - Open Mike Eagle
passionfruit - Yaeji
Tonite - LCD Soundsystem
Get on the Floor - The Allergies
Hopeless - Khalid
On Hold - The xx
Daydreaming in the Projects - Open Mike Eagle
LOVE. FEAT. ZACARI - Kendrick Lamar
Drink Dat - Thundercat
Human Heart - Joe Goddard
Angels - Khalid
Test Me - The xx

This years playlist is mainly composed of songs from my 3 favourite albums of the year; Khalid's American Teen (an amazing achievement for a 19 year old!), Thundercat's Drunk and The xx's I See You. I also enjoyed Electric Lines the debut solo album from Joe Goddard (Hot Chip/ 2 Bears) and New Energy, a return to form from Four Tet.

My favourite music video is Ryan Staake's genius video for Young Thug's Wyclef Jean. The shoot didn't quite go to plan, in fact Young Thug never even showed up. Instead what we get are cards that explain how things unraveled intercut with some of the footage Staake did get, based on the bizarre ideas that Thug had initially sent him; models riding kiddie cars, children dressed as cops smashing up police cars etc.

Young Thug// Wyclef Jean

BUG

I finally got to see one of Adam Buxton's BUG shows when he came to Bristol last month and played at the Colston Hall as part of the Encounters Festival.

BUG is a show that Buxton has been presenting for the last 10 years at the BFI in London in the spirit of Antenna, a music video showcase from the early 00's. He shows a selection of interesting music videos interspersed with rambling chat and hilarious readings of real YouTube comments people have left online under the videos.

It was great to see such an eclectic mix of music videos on a big screen with an audience and nice watching them in their entirety. As I'm sure is the case with most people these days, if I watch a music video online I rarely make it all the way through to the end before being tempted to click on something else.

Here are a couple that he showed. An amazing video shot in zero gravity by OK Go (of 'that' treadmill video fame!) and a video by AJJ that parodies one-take OK Go style vids.

Upside Down and Inside Out by OK Go was shot in a reduced gravity aircraft - a plane that nosedives from altitude to provide a brief moment of near-weightlessness for astronauts to use for training purposes. To make the video the band were filmed on a total of 21 flights and cleverly choreographed their moves so that at the end of each period of zero gravity they were static allowing the takes to be stitched together and give the impression that it was all filmed in a single take.

OK Go// Upside Down and Inside Out

AJJ// Goodbye, Oh Goodbye

Cassius

A simple yet very effective idea for the Cassius track Go Up featuring Cat Power & Pharrell Williams, directed by Alexandre Courtès, juxtaposes two unrelated shots to create new meaning using a simple splitscreen.

Cassius// Go Up ft. Cat Power & Pharrell Williams

Favourite Music of 2016

Decks Dark - Radiohead
Metal Bird - Gold Panda

I Exhale - Underworld

The Space Program - A Tribe Called Quest
Because I'm Me - The Avalanches
In My Car - Gold Panda

Dis Generation - A Tribe Called Quest
Subways - The Avalanches
Hold Up - Beyoncé

Tilted - Christine and the Queens
We the People....  - A Tribe Called Quest
Chiba Nights - Gold Panda
Black Man in a White World - Michael Kiwanuka
Love on the Brain - Rihanna
Rings of Saturn - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Ova Nova - Underworld
Ful Stop - Radiohead
Never Ending - Rihanna
Whateva Will Be - A Tribe Called Quest
If I Was a Folkstar - The Avalanches
Present Tense - Radiohead
Nylon Strung - Underworld
I Can't Give Everything Away - David Bowie

For me 2016 was the year of the comeback album with over half of my songs of the year playlist made up of tracks from great records by A Tribe Called Quest (first album since 1998), The Avalanches (..2000), Underworld (..2010) and Radiohead (..2011).

It wasn't a great surprise that it took 16 years for The Avalanches sophomore effort seeing as their 2000 debut Since I Left You was said to contain around 3,500 samples. As with their previous effort Wildflower is bursting with ideas and textures, tracks flowing into one another to create an epic suite of sound, set apart from it's predecessor by a number of tracks featuring guest vocalists. It's my favourite record of the year and also spawned my favourite music video Because I'm Me directed by Greg Brunkalla.

The Avalanches// Beacuse I'm Me

The playlist ends fittingly with a David Bowie track from his final album Blackstar. 2016 will be remembered as the year we lost so many talented musicians and artists.. the legends Bowie, Prince, George Micheal and Leonard Cohen among them.

Karni & Saul

Here are a couple of stills from a short dance film that I am cutting for the directors Karni & Saul. Check out their work here: www.sulkybunny.com.

Aphex Twin

In another stroke of genius from Aphex Twin his first music video since the Chris Cunningham classic 'Windowlicker' in 1999 is directed and edited by 12 year old Ryan Wyer of Rush, Dublin.

Aphex Twin// CIRKLON3 [ Колхозная mix ]

I Made This For You

This is a music video I made recently for my pal Thomas Stone using just a few seconds of footage shot on a phone and a clip of a NYC pillow fight from archive.org.

Packing a Punch// I Made This For You

Petit Fantôme

I'm always on the lookout for music videos that use archive footage in an interesting way. Here's a very fine example by Rosanna Webster and Charlie Sheppard for Petit Fantôme's 'L' that uses a plethora of copyright free archive clips.

Nowness// Petit Fantôme

Gold Panda

I love this music video for Gold Panda's In My Car directed by Rob Brandon. Simple and understated it shows Gold Panda (real name Derwin Schlecker) hanging out in his hometown of Chelmsford with his Grandma.

And it's touching what he had to say about it:

I asked Rob to just come and film us (my Gran & I) being boring. But now when I watch it back it doesn't seem mundane at all. It seems actually really nice and sweet. I was thinking about all this cool stuff we could do, slow-mo shots, what outfits I could wear, maybe an explosion and who could be in my crew. But real life is exciting enough; you just don't see it when you're in it.

Gold Panda// In My Car

The 2 Bears

I'm really looking forward to the upcoming release of The 2 Bears 2nd album The Night is Young. Here's the first track from the new album with a video made up using footage from the classic Hanna Barbera cartoon Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch!

The 2 Bears// Get Out

Dancing in the Street

Genius.

Musicless Music Video// Dancing in the Street

Cyriak

I love this music video by Cyriak for the Bonobo track 'Cirrus':
Cirrus// Bonobo

Made up entirely of clips from a 1962 film about the wonders of consumerism it shows how far you can take a tiny amount of source footage. It looks like the whole piece is made from about 20 clips, most of which are less than a second long.