Episode Two of Gorillaz's latest project, Song Machine, follows the style of the first for Momentary Bliss, of combining live action of the real members of the band with their cartoon versions. This one is an absolute beauty, as Damon Albarn and guest vocalist, the Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara, take a speedboat trip on Lake Como. This works beautifully, and the reason is almost certainly is that Jamie Hewlett is back in charge of the video side, investing that special sauce on the characters we know and love.It's a wonderful six minutes of nice things happening, in live action, to a very groovy song. Meanwhile in the cartoon world, Murdoc appears to suffer an existential crisis...

British animator Katy Wang's lovely animated video for French group Toto Bono Lokua is a riot of graphic ideas that feels like a children's book come to life.On hearing the song, and finding out the three singers came from French Martinique, Cameroon and the Republic of Congo, Wang researched African textiles, particularly Kuba cloth, which originates from the Republic of Congo. She ended up using that as a graphic inspiration for her love story, told in a very innocent way, and using what she describes as a 'thinking through making' process. "When I first listened to the song Ma Mama I was struck by its innocence and playfulness," she says about the song in which man calls her wife 'Ma Mama' because she represents the roots of the family tree - the foster mother and the source of Life."I immediately imagined lots of colours, patterns, and animals in a dreamy landscape. I love the acapella in it, and the three voices of Gerald Toto, Richard Bona, and Lokua Kanza compliment each other so well. I like how the song is structured so that each vocal part tells its own part of the narrative."

The video for Kruangbin's Maria También, the first single from the Texas-based trio's new album, tells the story of Iranian women prior to the revolution of 1979 that transformed the country into a theocracy.Before that, from 1925 onwards, Iranian women had gained numerous rights, access to education and employment, the freedom to petition for divorce and child custody - and had become TV entertainers. Chris Boyle, making one of his periodic return to music video directing, mines numerous recordings of pre-Revolution Iranian TV shows, showing the women who were on TV in the 70s in Iran - artists, singers, dancers and songwriters - being enjoyed by mass audiences, and who have either been exiled or silenced since the revolution.Khruangbin and Boyle have brought them back into the spotlight to honour their artistry - and of silenced women everywhere.

After her viral success with protest song Kelmti Horra that soundtracked the Tunisian revolution, Emel Mathlouthi returns with a powerful clip courtesy of Allie Avital.Featuring two topless male dancers bound and draped in shrouds, the video uses minimal set decoration, wonderful costume and a powerful red and black colour scheme to explore themes of oppression and revolution. The result is a rhythmic and intense battle cry.

Director Iain Simpson has taken a trip to Malawi on behalf of Beating Heart, a project that combines music originally recorded in the country in an epic field recording project, remixed by contemporary artists.In the case of The Work, remixed by Rudimental, it is a wonderfully uplifting piece of music - and don't we all need that right now. Simpson has done it wonderful justice on with this tour around Malawi - made with the help of fundraiser Love Support Unite (Lovespecs) - which, with the considerable assistance of DoP Aymen Fahmi, shows what a beautiful country it is.The core music on the Beating Heart Malawi album comes from an archive of 35,000 field recordings across Sub-Saharan Africa, between the 1920s & 1970s by Hugh Tracey. An extraordinary legacy. And the prceeds for the album will go to assist people in the areas where the music was originally recorded. A very worthy cause indeed.

Filmed in eight days across three continents, director Ross Stirling and DoP Nick Gillespie travelled a total of 53,000 miles in order to capture Mumford & Sons, Baaba Maal, The Very Best and Beatenberg - all the musicians who collaborated on the mini-album Johannesburg. And they pull all these disparate talents and locations together with a concept that feels of a piece with the musical project. Each musician was filmed in a location that was most significant or striking to them. For the celebrated world music vocalist Baaba Maal, this was his breathtaking homeland of Senegal. For South African indie-pop act Beatenberg, this was Cape Town’s beach-side suburb Muizenberg. Other locations featured in the video include Belgium, Malawi and the UK.Each artist was filmed straight to camera in an effort to emphasise the diversity and immense beauty of the world around them. The visual device works really well in emphasising a common cause of the musicians, and shared joie de vivre.