It’s that glorious time of the week again where you get to watch our top 5 favourite finds on the World Wide Web! Eden Samara revisits her past, SSION sets the roof on fire, BAYNK finds love, La Fraicheur stimulates a political awakening, and Tenderlonious gets his own back.
Eden Samara – ‘High School’
Nelson, BC-born Eden Samara releasees Mark Martin directed visuals for “High School”. Shot over the course of a week on the outskirts of Playa Del Carmen, the video gives us a glimpse into the kindness of the locals through the soft lens of a Super 8 camera. “‘High School’ revisits a collection of memories I had as a teenager growing up in small-town BC,” Eden tells Exclaim! “The title acts as a double entendre: part of it is poking fun at how intense your emotions and relationships can feel at that time, mostly it refers to missing the joy of going to my first raves and doing MDMA for three days out in the woods somewhere. It was important to me to have the visuals stay away from feeling cliché, but have them capture the surrealism and nostalgia I felt when looking back on this chapter of my life.”
SSION – ‘Heaven Is My Thing Again’ ft. MNDR, Ian Isiah, Jametatone
DIY queercore artist Cody Critcheloe aka SSION recently released new album ‘O’, named one of Time Magazine’s Best Albums of the Year so far & featuring guest appearances from Sky Ferreira, Patty Schemel (Hole), Róisín Murphy, Devendra Banhart, Jennifer Herrema, Ariel Pink, MNDR and stacks more. It’s an incredible, sprawling project from Critcheloe, who is also a painter (he’s responsible for the cover art of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ ‘Fever To Tell’) and cult video director who’s made visuals for Peaches, Robyn, Kylie Minogue, Grizzly Bear and many more. The release features bouncing hidden track ‘Heaven Is My Thing Again feat. Ian Isiah, MNDR and Jametatone’ Cody aka SSION says of the video: “I feel like this entire month has been such a shit-show. All this goddamned pressure to be proud 24/7. Don’t get me wrong, I am proud sometimes but it comes in waves and I guess that’s extremely normal which is something that I’m not very proud of. Ultimately, I’m FINE. I just gotta ride out the storm and be thankful for the ‘real’ shit: my ability to sweat pools and ROCK in-humans all over the world against all odds and manholes. So when my network television debut falls apart before millions of raging-screaming-teenage-girls I just deal with it cause I’m a seasoned queen and ready to be burned alive.”
BAYNK – ‘Be In Love’
New Zealand producer and songwriter BAYNK has released the official video for new single “Be In Love,” which is taken from his brand new double A-side release “Be In Love” / “Years,” out now via AllPoints here. The “Be In Love” video is a bona fide trip, featuring stunning cinematography with an engrossing surrealist edge. On the video, BAYNK describes, “This song & visual concept were written to describe a relationship where one participant thought the idea of love and being solely with one person was bullshit and the other thought the opposite. It’s a meeting of two souls who fit together so well but have such different views. A perfect example of how opposites attract. Love is magnetic.” The video is co-directed by Spencer Graves, whose credits include production design for Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble” video as well as creative direction for Lauv and directing his video for single “Easy Love.”
La Fraicheur – ‘The Movements’
Featuring voice samples of former Back Panther leader Angela Davis, French Berlin-based DJ and producer La Fraicheur delivers intense visuals for ‘The Movements’ taken from the 9-track album Self-Fulfilling Prophecy on InFiné. This remarkably dense, dancefloor-oriented album oscillates between techno, ambient and electronic music, a mesmeric yet pounding effort that gets the body and the mind moving. Gone and The Movements, the most vindictive and propulsive tracks are veritable ecstatic missiles that are sure to create aftershocks on
dancefloors for months to come. “I want to use moments of dancing to stimulate a bit of political awakening,” she says, and, speaking of her album in particular (in which are scattered various samples of politically explicit content, as on the track The Movements which plays with an interview of Angela Davis by Amy Goodman for Democracy Now, developing the idea of intersectionality, which, according to La Fraicheur, is the most relevant, powerful and contemporary way of addressing and fighting against the various discriminatory and oppressive policies.
Tenderlonious – ‘The Shakedown’ ft. The 22archestra
‘The Shakedown’ is 4 minutes of straight blaxploitation style funk. Intricate percussion meanders it’s way in-and-out of a deep groove, and tasteful flute interjections channelling the spirit of Bitches Brew. 22a label founder, flautist, saxophonist, producer and DJ extraordinaire Ed Cawthorne – aka Tenderlonious – has gained a reputation as one of the hardest working, most well respected and influential figures in South London’s burgeoning jazz scene. Whether dropping sought-after deep house / broken beat 12”s on 22a, releasing via the likes of Ninja Tune, Brownswood, Yoruba Sounds Of The Universe and Far Out, or making inspirational sounds with his other band Ruby Rushton, Tenderlonious is one of the jazz renaissance’s leading lights. The Shakedown is Ed’s debut album proper as Tenderlonious and features a new band – the dream team of top talent he named the 22archestra, who he leads seamlessly throughout. Listeners are exposed to the full breadth of Cawthorne’s technical and compositional skills, ranging from subtly meandering jazz to hip-hop, afrobeat, Latin and exhilarating free-form jazz. “‘The Shakedown’ is the story of a greedy London promoter who is trying to hold back show money from 22a,” says Tenderlonious to The FADER. “These situations happen sometimes, so you have to be prepared to handle your business. Big love to Plastic Horse for the animation!”
