Welcome to a very Gaspar Noé type of nightmare for The Weeknd's collaboration with pioneering electronic musician and producer Giorgio Moroder.This is no Noé-influenced piece either, but the unmistakeable work of the man himself, a combination of eye-bleeding visual assault and unsettling, disorientating strangeness. An elderly man staggers through a deserted virtual city under a sky of Northern Lights gone haywire, in which the giant sculpted heads of the two artists revolve.In Abel Tesfaye's long and distinguished track record of music videos this has to be the most uncompromising yet in terms of the visual aesthetic. Never has a 'flashing lights' warning at the start of a video been more justified. Top marks for giving the fanbase something outside their comfort zone.

Harry Lindley continues his run of promos for British rock outfit Don Broco, with this innovative and complex visual for Disappear. The video opens with vocalist Rob Damiani running, in reverse, away from some explosive textures. From there, the video splits, cleverly lining up at different points to create seamless match cuts. It's an ambitious promo, evoking the technical prowess of directors like Michel Gondry and Saam Farahmand's 2009 promo for Cheryl Cole's 3 Words, but with a contemporary, rock-tinged twist - and lots of strobe.Its the next step in Lindley's visual campaign for the band's new album, extending the exploration of artists M. C. Escher and Borges in the previous two videos, taking in themes of looping architecture, time, memory, mirrors and doubles. As a result it shifts between realities, some moving forward, some backward, all layered within the same environment. "Our aim was to evoke the sense of a single unbroken moment in time, as if captured by "quantum" cameras able to split apart and reform," says Lindley. "The central device – the separation and re-merging of two shots – was achieved mostly in camera."Two gimbal rigs (a Ronin 4D and an Osmo) were operated side by side, rolled simultaneously, then physically moved apart before being brought back together. When presented in split screen, this created the effect of one continuous shot breaking apart and reuniting. It required the impressive coordination of the entire crew to pull off the intricate choreography for these sustained takes."Key references included [Christopher Nolan movie] Tenet for its treatment of forward and reversed time in the same frame, the stark black-and-white 16mm reversal stock of Pi, and the work of Michel Gondry, particularly the split-screen sequence in The Green Hornet and the collapsing memories in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."Wonderland Films handled the visual effects, which included set extensions, reversed physics simulations and the redaction of the love-interest character. The structure and execution of the video mirror the track’s themes of separation, disintegration and disappearance."

Ben Newbury directs an out-of-this-world promo for Biffy Clyro, where frontman Simon Neil is an astronaut floating free in Earth's orbit - and not out of choice. Newbury's 'lost in space' premise is not unfamiliar, but it's highly appropriate for a track as heartfelt and contemplative as Biffy's Goodbye. And the success of the video also rests on the unexpected dramatic twist, where Earth explodes in a flash of red-hot flames. After glimpses of his past appearing in his helmet visor, the final moments are a compendium of glitchy memories that pull on the heartstrings. And we end on Neil's face in close-up, leaving his fate as a mystery. The result is a powerful visual, which makes the most of great VFX, creative cinematography and above all, an emotional core to anchor it all. Director Ben Newbury confirms that the concept of the video was influenced by Alfonso Cuarón's groundbreaking movie Gravity - a film that was ten years in the making due to the need to develop the technology to make it work. By contrast, the video for Goodbye happened very quickly. "We received the brief for Goodbye less than 48 hours before Biffy Clyro and their team were reading a treatment - thanks to the wonderful Andy Roberts at Las Bandas."Seven days later we were at Twickenham Studios in their VP stage, with Unreal worlds built by the 'quite brilliant' company Quite Brilliant, lights and camera plotted and positioned by guru Thomas English, and an enormous motion control arm expertly captained by Rammi from G6, with Simon from the band in a full space suit attached to one end - with a huge grin on his face."That only happens when you are working with the most fantastic young production company in London. Ramy, Tony and Erin from Common People are truly exceptional. It is through their skills, their network and the culture they have curated that makes a project like this happen. This shoot simply shouldn’t have been possible, never mind successful. And, with that, a massive shout out to everyone involved for going above and beyond what is normally possible to help get this made."With questions ringing around the industry about what value music videos have in 2025, this was a clear reminder that, at the minute, their only lifeline as an artform is bands and artists that are passionate about them being made, record labels and managers that can see their effectiveness as brand building tools and production companies and their teams who are willing to put their own time and money into projects they believe in. However illogical and unsustainable that is…"Alfonso Cuarón had 10 years and $100 million to create Gravity. We had £20K and three weeks. Which leads to one question, what on earth did Alfonso do with the rest of the $100 million? :)"

Maxim Kelly directs an ominously deceptive AI-generated music video for prog rock outfit Archive.The video for Look At Us suggests, appropriately, that we are seeing archive footage. But it becomes increasingly clear there is a blurring of the line between documentary and fiction. The black and white photojournalism style presenting images from 20th century America becomes increasingly offbeat and chilling. Its true origin becoming more obvious, and eventually incorporating elements of Cronenberg-inspired body horror.This has been brilliantly achieved by Maxim Kelly - who has a track record of both using and manipulating stock footage in his videos - and creates a building intensity and dread through a series of extraordinary images.The uncanny and disturbing aspect of this is how the AI-ness of the piece is rarely revealed. There is some similarity with Andrew Dominick's recent video for the classic Nick Cave track Tupelo, which manipulates early photos of Elvis Presley. If anything the fake reality seems more 'real' here than in the Cave film. "The song is about lies and deception, so I made the video itself a form of deception," explains Kelly. "Everything looks like trusted documentary photography, but it's entirely artificial. The medium becomes the message."