The Playlist: Japandroids / Steve Aoki ft Iggy Azalea / Hot Chip / Action Bronson

Japandroids - The House That Heaven Built



Steve Aoki & Angger Dimas feat. Iggy Azalea - Beat Down (Devolution Remix)



Hot Chip - These Chains



Action Bronson - SHIRAZ

Grimes: Genesis.

I don't think there's really anything you can say about this. Other than, strangely, it's just what I expected.

Talib Kweli, Curren$y and Kendrick Lamar: Push Thru

With a lot of hip-hop getting dark and dirty these days (see A$AP Rocky, OF, Kanye) it's real nice to get a breath of fresh air. This track feels really nice and airy, despite some pretty mean vocals from the master Talib Kweli, Curren$y and the up and coming master Kendrick Lamar.



The track is matched by some really clean and crisp visuals as each rapper takes you around their hometown New York, Louisiana and LA respectively.

Levi's Go Forth: 2012

Last year's Levi's Go Forth campaign was one of my favourite campaigns in a while and was a huge wake up call for the brand. It really captured the teenage rebellion spirit, the (dare I say it) carpe diem (ergh) attitude of teenagers/twenty somethings without being cheesey or forced.



They have gone on to release the 2012 campaign for Go Forth. It is more great work from the people at Wiedens, and although I don't think that it's quite as strong as the first campaign, it's definitely grown. Whereas 2011 was much more about rebelling and sticking it to man attitude to it, 2012 is much more entrepreneurial, it's yours for the taking, make the world the way you want it. It's just grown up a bit, and I like that.

Sigur Rós: Varúd.

For those that have been following the Sigur Ros Valtari Mystery Film Experiment, it's been varied and bizarre to say the least. From seeing Shia LaBeouf naked whilst playing with butterflies in an underwater world to an educational video on how to perform the heimlich manoeuvre, it's an odd collection. But I imagine this is exactly what Sigur Ros wanted when they decided to allocate small budgets to various film directors to interpret their album Valtari.

Sigur Rós: Varúð from Sigur Rós Valtari Mystery Films on Vimeo.

The latest video, for my favourite song off the album Varúd, is perhaps my favourite video so far too. It's far more straight forward and less surreal than the others, as you follow a girl with gold hair casually skipping through the streets of New York. It has a mixture of normality, oddness and magic that I think director Ryan McGinley pulls off so well.

Dan Harris - A Dedication.

Having received some bad news today, it really felt right to me that Washed Out brought out a video to A Dedication.



A beautiful video for a beautiful song. Make sure you appreciated what you've got.

RIP Dan.

Muhammad Ali X Yasiin Bey (X Louis Vuitton)

In the words of Hypebeast "There stands only a handful of hip-hop emcees who have been able to successful transcend the musical culture and find high-fashion relevance. Yasiin Bey is one that immediately comes to mind as a longstanding personality known just as much for his outspoken position in the culture as well as his smooth flowing rhymes."

Yasiin Bey's (aka Mos Def) latest demonstration of his talents is a couple of short performances of quotes by a man with just as sharp and smart tongue, Muhammad Ali. Though not perhaps in the same league, there are many similar traits between Bey and Ali; provocative, mindful, intelligent, witty and semantically superb.

Louis Vuitton "Word" - Directed by Stuart McIntyre from Steam Films on Vimeo.

Bey brings such energy to the show, it feels like Ali is in the room. Credit also has to go to Stuart McIntyre for the direction of the video as the mood and pace perfectly reflects the speeches. Not entirely sure what Louis Vuitton have to do with this, but it's something...

Louis Vuitton "Dream" - Directed by Stuart McIntyre from Steam Films on Vimeo.