10. Alan del Rio ((Buscabulla))
In this song, Raquel's voice is like the coming together of Grimes and Angela Carrasco singing "Boca Rosa," and of course sexier than that. In the frame, we almost get hypnotized with the lights that scroll across Raquel's silky face. The music is unfolded in such a way that it pulls us to the neon dance floor -is like a toy store saved in a music box. At the moment, if I was to call a Hot Line, I wish for Raquel to be on the other side of the phone. The styling of the video is haunting. From oversized shirts and clean faces, to the distant appearance of Luis Alfredo eating a banana and playing the maracas, there's true aesthetic depth on every frame. This is psicomagic, modern witchcraft. Twice we hear the song sigh "to' lo malo se va," and you can only wonder how Buscabulla is playing with trends and yet able to sound more alternative than what's on the market today. They are keeping it real. - Stella Vásquez
“Profundidadde Campo”
09. Bernardo Quesney ((Dënver))
You'd think by now Dënver would've given "Torneo Local" (the catchiest track in Fuera de Campo) the single treatment, but they've bravely chosen for the wonderfully nuanced and string-syncopated beauty of "Profundidad de Campo." After winning the prize for Music Video of the Year at FESAALP (Festival de Cine Latinoamericano de la Plata), as well as topping our own list with "Revista de Gimnasia," Bernardo Quesney is once again in charge of the frame. Recruiting Chilean actor Eugenio Morales once again as a TV host and dance music choreographer, Quesney plays with the analog signal nostalgia of variety shows (sacrificing the comfort of widescreen and adjusting the ratio of the frame to fit the era). With a bold sign on the background that reads "Tocando las estrellas!," this has to be Dënver's most extroverted clip yet. Mariana is rocking a pink wig, while Milton owns the new look. Both teasing the camera in a tongue-in-cheek manner and showing off their quirky moves. Our favorite duo has sure come a long way since appearing as kidnapped victims on the trunk of a car in that unforgettable breakthrough clip of "Lo Que Quieras." - Carlos Reyes
Japonés”
08. Salomon Simhon
((Daniela Spalla))
Argentine artist, Daniela Spalla, has released a second single before the upcoming release of her anticipated second album, Ahora vienen por nosotros; the rollicking brush off of "Folk Japonés." Here, the protagonist doesn't just give a pop-tastic middle finger to an ex, but tie him up and try to commit several creative forms of homicide. The video, directed by Salomon Simhon, is a mash up of the girls of St Trinians, The Hunger Games, and witchy-anime - while Daniela Spalla continues to impress with her song-crafting: the phrasing similar to Bebe without the acento Extremeño, and song structure reminiscent of Chile's Francisca Valenzuela. We're excited to hear what other sounds Spalla experiments with on the album after this, and the grind of first single "Arruinármelo." - Sam Rodgers
Belleza”
07. Nacho Vigalondo ((Silverio))
Let's face it, Silverio has a provisional purpose in music that's unlikely to place him in best-of-the-year consideration. This year, however, he will be remembered for achieving the two biggest accomplishments of his career: recruiting non other than Laura Leon "La Tesorito" for his performance at Vive Latino, and joining forces with Spanish genre director Nacho Vigalondo for what's Silverio's best music video yet: "Salon de Belleza." Featuring an intro sequence of a boy telling the story of a forbidden love, the frame's composition is something we would come to expect from Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre), not from the guy that brought us Los cronocrímenes. What follows is a travelogue to the adventures of Silverio - including his death and a look at his afterlife. While not devoid of cheap trills and bad taste, "Salon de Belleza" triumphs at offering a glossy, never-defeated view of the world and its plausible eternities. - Carlos Reyes
que me
pegues ”
06. CANADA ((Los Punsetes))
While CANADA's style has remained a popular reference point for countless indie videos (and indie video dissections), their latest work for Los Punsetes combines a familiar aesthetic with an even more exaggerated commercial and pop motif. What I'm getting at is that this is kind of Kyary-esque. Anyone who has followed Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's videography over the years should instantly recognize certain visual elements of marrying cute with creepy. “Me gusta que me pegues” might not strictly adhere to Kyary's dogma (what does?), but it still gets there. Consider the scene in which singer Ariadna, dressed in a gold lamé sweater, delivers a knockout roundhouse kick, or how her victim (a pretty freaking creepy piñata man) tumbles down as gracefully as it occurs only in anime. Don't even get me started on the performance shots with candy graphics swirling inside the band. This kawaii masochism is soundtracked by a brazen and addicting single that charges through like a fuse, you can't blink because it goes out that quickly. - Giovanni Guillén
tu coche ”
05. Sefardico ((Gus Goose))
The latest inductee to the Abstrakt Muzak family (house of White Ninja and Memo) is Gus Goose, a former member of Monterrey band, Husky. The label has announced the release of his first EP, Larchmont, and has unveiled a frame-within-frame clip for first single “Dulces en tu Coche” by Sefardico (director of Memo’s “Separate Leaves”). With the promise of “La paciencia siempre se recompensa,” the clip is fragmented like a book –with a prologue, chapters, and a resolution. While the image of a sink and a water tub filled with buttered popcorn sounds like something hard to get away with, Sefardico provides the scope of the clip with enough warmth and frame divisions to afford such an image. The clip goes on to transfix the wise and not-so-wise choices of a character that seems to have a lack of direction. You can’t help but to sheer for him (and his patience) at all times. I found myself wanting to offer him my own intermission notecards in hopes of getting him there. Also, big props for the best use of the color red since Her. - Carlos Reyes
let it go ”
04. Andrea Martorellete
((Las Amigas de Nadie))
Human Dress is the title of Las Amigas de Nadie’s follow up to their very impressive breakthrough record, Sincronia. Having resolved an identity as a rock band, and distilling all the kitsch of their past, the Peruvian band is holding on to momentum. The band has unveiled “Should not let it go” as a sampling of what’s to come. Their sound had never been this vulnerable, and although the hooks don’t amount to much, they’ve chosen to strengthen other elements of their discourse. More than aesthetically pleasing, the clip for this track amends the mundane melodies Las Amigas de Nadie have chosen to present us. Directed by Andrea Martorellet, “Should not let it go” plays with composition and space through the embedding of a pink-spandex character that enjoys contemplating a plate of raw meat next to a glass of milk, and whose mere consciousness provokes alienating terror. - Carlos Reyes
Naranja ”
03. Agustín Carbonere
((Diosque))
Serving as a teaser of what’s was to come, Diosque has unveiled "Una Naranja" (or a rough version of it) along with a layered cinéma vérité video helmed by Agustín Carbonere. The black frame shades out to find a zoomed shot of a hand holding a stone. Talk about visual impact and intimidation. “A ver quien tira la primera piedra,” sings Diosque in the first line of “Una Naranja.” In the best way of cinéma vérité (or many literal fables), the clip opens the frame in a continuous pace, unveiling its subject in a fascinating and cruel way. After the video zooms out, we realize the man holding the stone isn’t as intimidating anymore. The ant-sized man aims to hit a giant, yet defeated, version of himself. He's gasping words hoping to acquire visibility. The frame keeps zooming out, adjusting to his third and last encounter with an even bigger, human version of the now triumphant man rocking out a keytar amidst the brutal and decaying background. The loop of the narrative, the grainy/dreamy superimposition of the subject(s), and the melodic risks and digital blows of the song itself make this a true feast for the senses. - Carlos Reyes
02. Bernardo Quesney ((Fakuta))
"Tormenta Solar" is a song that redeems itself with its thematic force. Fakuta is a force. Its chorus finds hope in destruction: "Suelto los brazos, los pies y me expando como una tormenta solar. Y los pobres chicos que quedaron dentro ardieron al bailar" to which the only appropriate response should be: YAS.For its newly released clip, Fakuta enlisted the prolific Bernardo Quesney, whose videography this year alone has kept us beyond impressed. Along with DP Matias Illanes, Quesney executes a treatment that's both elegant and completely irreverent (just as we hoped). Here, Fakuta plays the role of a mother superior. All members of this religious trio seem possessed by a desire to know sacrilege. Images of the sisters smoking are intercut with rotating shots next to white statues till it's almost poetic. It's not long, however, before their spiritual search becomes a game of survival. Fakuta, of course, comes out the winner. - Giovanni Guillén
/Ociosos”
01. Alonso Mangosta
((Baby Nelson & The Philistines))
Director Alonso Mangosta credits Mexico's Mantarraya Producciones for the development of "Ansiosos / Ociosos," the excellent clip for noise rockers Baby Nelson & The Philistines. Mantarraya is the production house that shelters enfant-terrible Mexican directors like Carlos Reygadas and Amat Escalante. And so it doesn't come as a shock that Mangosta would step in the zone of provocateurs serving from 16mm film as ammunition. The grainy celluloid shows an intruder walking to the bed of a man who appears to have passed out. The intruder checks for his pulse and smokes the last bite of a cigarette near him. He climbs on the unresponsive body, smells his crotch, and goes on a rampage stabbing the man's face over and over via school scissors. One could accuse such visual urge from the director as gratuitous, but the increasing of the man's bulge, finding the scent of the victim, and the cuddling afterwards suggests this was sexual encounter gone wrong, or fully realized - Carlos Reyes