musikclips

Take the following list as a relaxed supplement to the many best of’s of the past weeks. Take your time and relax, the public hysteria is already over. 2013 was again the big comeback of the music clip far away from MTViva (does anybody remember?). Viewed from each side – commercially, artistically, technically – the last year had a bunch of aha! moments and amazing ideas. It wasn’t easy, but I picked 15 of my favorite clips from 2013. Hope you enjoy!

15. Action Bronson – »Strictly 4 My Jeeps« directed by Jason Goldwatch. New York rapper Action Bronson shot this video with his friend RiFF RaFF in Queens and on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Bronson shows us that he knows how to drain jump shots, prepare feasts, and turn cartwheels even with a lot of pounds to lose. The lascivious shots of seriously overweight women is daring, but works wonderfully well.

14. Satellites – »Wasteland« directed by M-I-E. Yibi Hu and Joe Marshall have created a delightful animated video for Satellites‘ Wasteland, telling an allegorical tale of artificial intelligence – and the importance of batteries. Unfortunately the lack of promotion made this fine animation pass quite unnoticed: the man behind Satellites quietly released »Satellites.0.2« to no publicity.

13. Brandt Brauer Frick feat. Om’Mas Keith – »Plastic like your mother« directed by Daniel Brandt & Julian Schleef. »Plastic Like Your Mother«, featuring Om’mas Keith, was the first single from Berlin’s trio Brandt Brauer Frick’s third album »Miami«. For their video the German experimental techno trio have strapped cameras to the heads of 28 dancers and let them loose. The choreography was created by Kiani Del Valle. The song itself takes a while to fully kick into gear, but the whole thing suddenly morphs into a dramatic dancefloor anthem.

12. Django Django – »WOR« directed by Jim Demuth. The clip – for Django Django’s best song ever first released back in 2010 – doubles as a mini-doc about the phenomenally brave men who both ride bikes and drive cars on the »Well of Death« at the Maha Kumbh Mela grounds in Allahabad, India. Based on an original idea by Django Django’s drummer, producer and defacto band leader, Dave Maclean.

11. Kanye West – »Black Skinhead« (stylized »BLKKK SKKKN HEAD«) directed by Nick Knight. If there were a special »Post Production« category, Black Skinhead might win. An computer-animated Kanye runs shirtless across the screen, wearing leather pants and the best gold chain you have ever seen in a HipHop clip. West and Knight have made the video interactive, allowing the viewer to speed up or slow down the video, or take screenshots, using a cursor that gives you the finger. Watch it at YouTube and get the full experience!