Ten Rapid: The best new music videos from EMA, Prince, Dum Dum Girls, The Faint and more

This week's selection of the best new music videos, featuring The Strokes' Albert Hammond Jr., HAIM, and the return of The Faint, plus Cut Copy, Dum Dum Girls, a classic live track from Prince, and much more

Article | 28 Feb 2014

Welcome back to Ten Rapid, where we showcase a selection of the week's best new music videos, as curated by The Skinny's music team. This week's playlist features a mixture of indie, synth-pop, electroclash (remember that?!?) and hip-hop, with new videos from The Strokes' Albert Hammond Jr., Sub Pop new wavers Dum Dum Girls, brutal electro noiseniks Roman Nose, those charming HAIM girls, the return of electroclash heroes The Faint, and a live track from Prince and 3RDEYEGIRL, from their recent Manchester gig.

We kick off with a new track from EMA, whose much-anticipated new album The Future's Void drops in April. In stark contrast to spiky electronic first single Satellites, So Blonde is a hazy piece of California surf-pop; the video featuring sun-drenched scenes of skateboarders and beach bums interacting with strange GIF characters created by Molly Soda. The video's directed by Vice Cooler. 

Next up, it's the return of Stones Throw hip-hop champ Jonwayne. In the video, directed by Naveed Farro, we peek behind the scenes at an office where hedonism and excess are the watchwords, with staff abusing everything from cocaine to cakes; and indulging in everything from whiskey to wild sex. Jonwayne drops in over a moody synth riff, holding the beat back until the very last moment. The cut's taken from the rapper's latest, Rap Album One.  

Dum Dum Girls offer up a slice of infectious new wave pop, with psychedelic filters and collage techniques applied to footage of the band performing the track. Their latest, Only in Dreams, is out now on Sub Pop. The video was directed by Nathaniel Brown.

Planet Mu boss Mike Paradinas, aka  μ-Ziq, returns with another excursion into ethereal dream-pop with his wife Lara Rix-Martin as Heterotic. Rain is taken from their second album, Weird Drift, which is due on Paradinas' innovative label in April. The video's directed by none other than Mu signing and Glasgow electronic musician and visual artist Konx-Om-Pax. The vocals for this track are provided by French singer Vezelay

Aussie electro-pop outfit Cut Copy are up next, wearing their love for New Order and classic disco well and truly on their sleeves with new track We Are Explorers, taken from latest album Free Your Mind. In the stop-motion video, directed by Masa Kawamura, Qanta Shimizu and Aramique, figures created using a 3D printer have an adventure in the cracks between the pavements of a modern city. And if you have access to a 3D printer of your own, you can even download the templates and recreate the video!

On indefinite sabbatical from The Strokes, Albert Hammond Jr. is delivering track after track of quality new material from his latest solo effort, the AHJ EP. The video for Strange Tidings shows Hammond walking around New York and Brooklyn with a camera strapped to him, the city a blur in his wake. We're looking forward to seeing him play this one live when he headlines at Stag and Dagger in Glasgow this May.

Scottish gothic electro lunatics Roman Nose have compiled a video for the frankly terrifying cut Coming For You (seriously, we're freaked out!). Is there anything more menacing than masked men abusing drums and synths in a darkened, smoky, sweaty room? Even the moshers in the crowd are masked up, making this look less like a gig and more like a rallying point for a dystopian cyber-goth riot, soundtracked by a blistering slab of pounding electro. Watch now, if you dare...

Next, it's the turn of all-conquering trio HAIM, who deliver a video for one of the more melancholic cuts from debut album Days Are Gone. With HAIM booked for a bucketload of festivals this year, it seems these girls can do no wrong - and with a particularly heavy 80s synth-pop influence on this track, it's one of the standouts from their unit-shifting breakthrough album. 

As we near the end of this week's playlist, we have two very special treats for you - the first is the long-awaited return of electroclash heroes The Faint, who gained popularity alongside the likes of Fischerspooner and Miss Kittin in the mid-noughties, only to disappear after 2008's Fasciinatiion. They're back, with a new album titled Doom Abuse due in April, and from the sound of the raucous, DFA-influenced electronic punk-funk of first single Help in the Head, they're on the form of their lives. "When judgment day comes, we'll hide behind the sun," goes the track's epic refrain. What more can we say but... hell yeah!

Finally, here's a classic track from Prince, backed by his new band 3RDEYEGIRL. His Purpleness has been playing a string of intimate pop-up gigs around the country, including a recent outing in Manchester, where this video of Let's Go Crazy was shot. Reports from these gigs range from the delirious to the flat-out religous - as the video amply shows, Prince is at the top of his game. 

That's it for this week's Ten Rapid! If you want to cue up all of the videos, see below, or visit The Skinny's YouTube channel, where you'll find a tailored playlist, not to mention regular video premieres, exclusive sessions with the likes of Young FathersAidan Moffat & RM HubbertUbre Blanca, and much more! We'll see you back here in 7 days for another Ten Rapid.

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