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Milo Hill directs a rowdy promo for Brighton-based trio Signature Gold. The video for Antibodies interweaves a group performance in a church with evocative cutaways, all shot in a frantic, feverish way.It's a punchy promo packed full of evocative imagery and abstract narrative segments, and a brilliant introduction to the alt-grunge group.
Rob Ulitski - 9 months ago
Frequent Rina Sawayama collaborator - and recent guest on The Promonews Podcast - Ali Kurr directs a grunge-inspired promo for Hurricanes. Exuding early Noughties pop-rock nostalgia, the video is a riotous, windswept tour de force, with Rina at the eye of the storm - an impressive climax to a hugely absorbing, refined trilogy of videos, which as with its predecessors This Hell and Hold The Girl features splendid cinematography by DoP Diego Rosenblatt. Kurr discussed her fruitful collaboration with Rina Sawayama on the latest episode of The Promonews Podcast. And Hurricanes will leave viewers breathless and excited for the next step in both the artist and director's respective journeys. "For this video, Rina wanted a band performance moment with a trickle of a narrative running through it," Ali Kurr explains. "Leaning on an Alanis Morrisette, grunge aesthetic, we open on an exhausted Ri who assembles with her bandmates in a vaulted barn as a wicked storm descends."Although this video has a different feel to it than our previous films for Rina’s latest album, I wanted to make sure Hurricanes sat in the same world. So we made sure to shoot on the same lenses and even used the same location as Hold The Girl."
Rob Ulitski - 27th Sept 2022
James Murray creates an evocative visual for Wunderhorse - the solo project of Jacob Slater, former frontman of indie outfit The Dead Pretties - for the alluring Butterflies.It's comprised of simple yet strong set-ups that make the most of the interiors lit with natural light, and the urban/rural mix of East London locations, with Slater - who has been cast in the much-anticipated Sex Pistols bio-drama Pistol as the band's drummer Paul Cook - front and centre.Murray exploits his cool, on-screen charisma here, creating a sensibility that's more early Nineties than Seventies - in keeping with the unmistakeable influence of grunge on the track.
Promonews - 25th Apr 2022
Lucy Knox directs a high energy promo for Hayley Mary, former frontwoman of iconic Australian band The Jezabels.Shot entirely on 30 year-old short-ends of 16mm film - which were leftover remnants from 90s Australian tv-shows - the video sees the artist tearing up the streets in a vintage car, throwing out diamonds and jewels with little regard to their worth; a metaphoric interpretation of the songs lyrics.The degradation of the expired film stock (which had been left sitting in someone's garage for decades) gives the punk track a desired grunge aesthetic, which is eagerly elevated by Mary's unabashed performance style.
Rob Ulitski - 24th Feb 2021
No, Tom Cruise is not in the video for rising artist Issermann. In the video for Sad + Boring, director Nathan Sam Long utilises deepfake technology to land a star-studded "cast".The Black Mirror-like story follows Isserman, as he utilises futuristic contact lenses to visualise his celebrity fantasies in place of his partner. Co-starring French artist and ballerina Victoria Dauberville, the visual is a whirlwind trip into the Uncanny Valley, with haunting undercurrents and a more than slightly creepy atmosphere.The story reflects our image-obsessed society, allowing us to glitch and transform our bodies on a whim. In a first-of-its-kind, this form of artificial intelligence - most widely associated with fake news and revenge porn - has provided a unique opportunity for an emerging musician."Sad + Boring is about being stuck in a relationship that’s slowly diminishing you and your personality," says Isserman. "I thought celebrity deepfakes provided a great metaphor for this desire to be loved at all costs, and actually was surprised it’s not yet been explored in this way."
Rob Ulitski - 11th May 2020
Dinosaur Pile-Up are immortalised as cartoon characters in this heart-wrenching story of lost lovers and a car ride gone wrong, directed by Michael Robertson at South African animation studio, Toon53 Productions. Influenced by old-school TV cartoon shows and action films, the atmospheric visual is layered in its concept as well as technique, unwrapping a narrative that sees frontman Matt Bigland try to save his girlfriend from beyond the grave.Balancing the story with emotionally affecting flashbacks and regrets, the project is brilliantly structured and a perfect complement to the wistful track.
Rob Ulitski - 6th Mar 2020
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Marika Hackman celebrates self-love and female masturbation in this subversive visual by Sam Bailey. Fingers pick tentatively at a hairbrush, prize apart a clothes peg, and bother a Victoria sponge cake. A wallet quivers; a rogue tumble dryer bursts open. If I were any wiser, I’d say there were some mildly suggestive double entendres on display here. This is not an Argos commercial - it’s the video for Marika Hackman’s self-described “wank anthem” Hand Solo.Created by collaborator and fellow musician Sam Bailey, who also directed the UKMVA-winning My Lover Cindy, the video confronts the stigma of female masturbation. The symbolism on display follows the path recently trod boldly by Viva La Vulva, Kim Gehrig's taboo-busting promo-length ad for Libresse, and then moves on with impressive purpose and imagination. For movement direction, Hackman and Bailey enlisted the help of Evie Fehilly, a sex-educator who runs workshops at Shoreditch's SH! sex shop.Together with her collaborators, Marika Hackman continues to do God’s work as indie’s pre-eminent social critic and queer humourist, dispensing golden one-liners like: "Under patriarchal law / I’m going to die a virgin." Then, after a wink and a grin, Hand Solo takes a more contemplative tack for the outro of the song.Hackman recently asked her female-identifying fans to share experiences of shame around the subject of masturbation. And in these final moments, their sobering experiences crawl across the screen in shades of neon. This ending has a neat double-function as the solemn coda to the video’s climax, or as Hackman describes it, “the moment of shame after the ecstasy”.
Ned Botwood - 2nd Oct 2019
Anton Corbijn's classic Nirvana video from 1993.
Promonews - 24th Nov 1993
