Five Video Clips from Mexico

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In our video clip series we're heading for Mexico this time. Australian author Moses Iten compiled five Mexican clips for Norient between field recordings, Reggaeton and Cumbia. He begins with one of our long time favorites, a sci-fi shaving odyssey starting from the heights of Machu Picchu. But see and read by yourself what he's got for you furthermore.

Artist: Frikstailers
Track: Crop Circles

The team behind this video is Flamboyant Paradise, who really brought the Frikstailers to worldwide attention with their remix of «Hold The Line» by Major Lazer. The Frikstailers duo is originally from Cordoba, Argentina, but in recent years have relocated to the world’s largest metropolis: Mexico City. Their irreverent sense of humour and fun approach to dancefloor music is reflected in their visuals, whilst at the same time a profound commentary on «Latin American» identity, both exploiting and playing with clichés.

Artist: Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich+Fussible
Track: Camino Verde

Nortec Collective have always produced outstanding videos, because is characterized by musicians and video artists work in constant collaboration both conceptually and aesthetically. Both Bostich and Fussible live in the Las Playas neighbourhood where this video was filmed, and another characteristic of their videos are the many personal references made and being in tribute to their beloved city of Tijuana. Bostich+Fussible imagine «Camino Verde» as the name of an imaginary underground metro line in Tijuana, a city well known for it’s lack of civic infrastructure. The masks they are wearing can have many interpretations in the make-believe city of Tijuana.

Artist: Nanda Fernandez Bredillard
Track: Sonidos del Distrito

This is not a video clip produced for a music project, but stands alone as a video for sound art based on field recordings. Nanda captures the vitality of Mexico City in this audio-visual collage of quick edits. Essentially a compilation of documentary footage and field recordings, the composition of this film is very engaging. Nanda also produced a second similar and more polished film focusing on Mexico City’s street food called Vitamina T.

Artist: Sonido Satanas
Track: Santa Tere

Sonido Satanas’ video for their debut EP is homage to their barrio of Santa Tere, in the city of Guadalajara. It is also a tribute to the power of celebration in Cumbia, a dancefloor style hugely popular in Mexico, often danced in the street. It is obvious the dancers filmed in the markets featured in this low-budget clip were convinced to perform on the spot, making this video very representative of the lighthearted nature of Cumbia music and the people who belong to it.

Artist: Silverio
Track: Perro

The underbelly of tropical Mexico is captured in this video produced for perennial bad boy Silverio, self-proclaimed Imperial Majesty of Electro-punk. Reggaeton will never seem quite the same again after you have witnessed this video.

Biography

Moses Iten is a Musician and DJ from Australia.

Published on April 18, 2015

Last updated on August 17, 2020

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Five Video Clips from South Korea

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by Hyunjoon Shin

Since the rise of Psy's «Gangnam Style» – it became the first YouTube video to reach one billion views – the whole world now knows about Korea's vivid music scene. But there's a lot more to the scene than just «Gangnam Style»: Hyunjoon Shin from the Institute for East Asian Studies (IEAS) at Sunkonghoe University sent us five completely different music videos from South Korea that illustrate just how vibrant Korea's music scene is today.

Artist: Goonam
Track: Blood

The name of the band in this clip is «Goonam». Translated from Korean into English, this means «old man and woman riding a stellar car». This video is an incarnation of the retromania that occurred not only in the West, but in Asia as well. Featuring fake tradition with a staggering groove, the song presents a drunken melody that will encourage you to «shut up and dance».

Artist: Love X Stereo
Track: Fly Over

This is an electronic dance rock trio born from the ashes of punk bands. They are New Order in Asian indiepop. The band sings in global English with the dream of achieving international border-crossing appeal. Anyway, the sound is cute and wild at the same time.

Artist: Danpyunsun and the Sailors
Track: Ball

An «amateur» avant-garde singer-songwriter with attitude formed a band and experiments with the fusion or fission of anger and resignation, the abstract and the real, and (though a banal comment) the West and the East.

Artist: Kim Dae Jung
Track: 300/30

Kim Dae Jung, the man with the same name as the former president of South Korea. The bluesman's life has been as hard and painful (if not more) as the latter's. This is the blues; not the authentic genre, but the name for the emotion the song conveys.

Artist: Asian Chairshot
Track: Girl

Busan is kind like the Seattle or Liverpool of South Korea, though the geographical direction is the opposite. The music in Busan is rougher, wilder, and rawer than the music produced in the capital city (Seoul). Here we get the Korean version of Tool. It's like prog metal but without virtuosity.