Sunday 17 August 2014

Röyksopp & Robyn get eerie on their 'Monument' music video

Following the releases of "Do It Again" and "Sayit", Röyksopp & Robyn have released a third single taken from their collaborative EP Do It Again (a review can be found here). The single in question is the incredible opening track "Monument", and a music video was shot as well. Directed by previous Robyn collaborator Max Vitali, the nearly seven-minute clip is a futuristic, surreal visual adaptation of the gloominess of the song, seamlessly matching its stylistic minimalism. It features the trio lying on a glowing white platform with two dancers performing an eerie routine, floating in space and finally being overshadowed by a giant upside-down pyramid. Rather than narrating a story, the music video seeks to convey an emotion and, in my opinion, does it quite stunningly. Check it out below:


Tuesday 5 August 2014

New music videos from Katy Perry, Lana Del Rey

More has happened in the world of music videos.

First of all, here's the new clip for Katy Perry's latest single "This Is How We Do", taken from her fairly good pop record Prism. I'm still unimpressed by her choice for the next single (come on, why not give "International Smile" a chance? It's one of the best songs on the album!) but the music video is a very typical Katy Perry video. It's fun, with heaps of completely unrelated stuff - whatever is the connection between ping pong or basket ball players, watermelon fans, animated desserts and the retro aesthetics of the clip is completely beyond me. But maybe it's indeed 'just' a Katy Perry pop video and should be taken as such, so instead of troubling our heads about any deeper meanings, let's just enjoy the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink clip, rich with colours, De Stijl references, twerking ice cream cones and even a Mariah Carey impersonator.





Then there's also, of course, the ever so dramatic Lana Del Rey and the music video for her new single "Ultraviolence". The grainy clip looks as if it was filmed with an old iPhone and is like the audiovisual equivalent of an Instagram filter but I suppose that's intentional. There's lots of close-ups of her infamous lips - sometimes wrapping around her lover's fingers, sometimes a piece of a tangerine - while she wanders around in a garden, wearing a wedding dress. Well, you'd expect much more from her, but then again it's very Lana-esque anyway. Although to that extent that she's starting to resemble a parody of herself. But maybe that's just me.


Two new Madonna demos have leaked

Well, new as in 'previously unreleased'. As a matter of fact, the demos date back all the way to Madonna's Erotica sessions in the early '90s so nope, they've got nothing to do with her forthcoming, currently untitled 13th studio album. But now that I've got your attention, why won't you check them out? Sometimes outtakes are outtakes for a reason - the first one, "You Are The One", is a bit of a throwaway - but "Shame" is actually a pretty good tune that would've made a proper Madonna classic, had it been released. (Die-hard fans of her Madgesty may recognise the song titles from "the Rain tapes", a collection of demos from the Erotica era.)





Friday 1 August 2014

Review: 'Pig Safari' by CC33



I mostly do music blogging just for my own amusement, as there's not that many actual perks to it. Unlike those who blog about food or fashion or whatever, you don't really get that much material profit out of it - you have to be pretty well-known in order to receive exclusive invitations or free concert tickets or stuff like that. However, every once in a while I do get e-mails with free music downloads etc. in them, and some months ago I even got my first promo CD in the mail so that's always pretty nice. The CD in question was called Pig Safari by the Finnish electro-rock outfit CC33.





You might recognise the band as it has been featured on my blog before, first in the Song of the Week section, then in my blog post about Finnish indie music. Generally, as you might've noticed by now, i don't tend to write about Finnish music that often (despite being a Finn myself) but there's always the occasional exceptions to that rule that are just too interesting to ignore. The Jyväskylä-based group CC33 is one of those.