Watch Our 2019 New Zealand Video Highlights

For our first end of year feature to wrap up a wild twelve months, here's ten music videos from throughout Aotearoa that blew us away in 2019...

Aldous Harding – 'The Barrel'

Aldous Harding's 'The Barrel' was a phenomenon from the moment it hit the internet, boosted by the elegant, surreal and celebratory video for the song, co-directed by the artist and Martin Sagadin. Harding's magical neo-folk tune is complemented by gorgeously minimal visuals, throwing viewers a hugely enjoyable curve-ball towards the end alluding to the mythical figure of Baba Yaga from Russian folklore. Harding's towering Jodorowsky-like hat was a breakout star in its own right. C.C.

Beastwars – 'Storms Of Mars'

Amber Beaton and Nathan Hickey's raw in-studio video for Beastwars' ‘Storms Of Mars’ delivers a shocking and visceral heavy metal body blow, laying bare singer Matt Hyde's battles with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Released in mid-2019, Beastwars' aptly titled fourth album IV was a triumphant return, with the record's awe-inspiring urgency perfectly captured by the live footage. Filmed at Blue Barn Studio during IV's recording sessions, Beastwars described 'Storms Of Mars' as "the first song Matt recorded after completing his chemotherapy treatment and you can see in the video he had a lot to get off his chest." C.C.

SoccerPractise – Te Pō

The team of Geneva Alexander-Marsters (Important), Thom Burton (Moppy) and Leo Horgan's ambitious second full length collection Te Pō dropped in November as an eleven-part "visual album," combining SoccerPractise's electronic anthems sung in both Te Reo and English with a head-spinning array of video works created by Erika Sklenars (Lady Lazer Light) and Dan Harris. Te Pō's audio-visual feast ranges from guerrilla street performance to 3D animated information overload – check out the opening clip for first track 'Mihi' below and head over SoccerPractise's site here to experience the full project. C.C.

Archi Banal – 'u don't stop the beat'

Now based in London, Archi Banal has had an awesomely productive year, releasing both her solo electronic debut my baby / my former self and the debut EP from Blush Juliet, the ex-Tāmaki Makaurau artist's guitar-fuzz duo with Emmanuel Sarmiento. Pippi Nola's future-gazing, zero budget clip for 'u don't stop the beat' encourages viewers to succumb to Banal's emotionally frank electronic pop universe – via hyperreal anime dance imagery, spicy cartoon snippets and mind-melting 3D collaged visuals. C.C.

Earth Tongue – 'Probing The New Reality'

I'm a sucker for 2D animation, and Earth Tongue have hit it out of the park in this sci-fi inspired video, created in collaboration with Alan Waddingham and animator Neirin Best. The trend of animating over live action footage is definitely having a moment, and this clip perfects the art, with the colourful overlays adding volumes to the visuals rather than just adorning it. A.K.

Lawrence Arabia – 'One Unique Creature'

It's no secret we're Frances Hazsard fans, after we recruited her to make the titles for our UTR Caught Live series, and this video for Lawrence Arabia's 'One Unique Creature' cemented our excitement to have her on the job. I'm a total sucker for anything 2D animated, especially something as stylised as this with the blue line work and overall stunning colour palette. Favourite part: The details in the glove when she takes it off at the very start. A.K.

Hans Pucket – 'Comfort'

What a gift to truly be able to indulge the natural human desire to gawk at identical twins and make them fight to the death. The Bub Club's video for 'Comfort' is equal parts heart-warming, funny, and fascinating, and doubles as a handy way for Hans Pucket fans to get all of their twin ogling out of the way before seeing them in person. A.K.

Dudley Benson – 'Matariki'

Director and animator Emile Holmewood turns text book diagrams into happy joyous animations in this video, taking Matariki’s themes of identity, the earth and dead relatives and packing them into a fun video to complement Dudley Benson's song’s upbeat and reflective tone. TLDR: Makes learning fun. A.K.

Ben Woods – 'Romancy'

I'm not sure if this video portrays a universal feeling of melancholy and nostalgia, or just one specific to people who went to the Woodford Glen Speedway in Canterbury for their friend's 10th birthday to watch the demolition derby. Maybe it's my inner Christchurch bogan truly shining through, but the video for 'Romancy' gives me huge feelings, so thank you Martin Sagadin (who also co-created the clip for Aldous Harding's 'The Barrel' above) for making hot chips and such a bleak setting look absolutely beautiful. A.K.

Swidt – 'BUNGA'

Onehunga rap titans Swidt's audio-visual single 'BUNGA' attracted instant acclaim when it dropped like a bomb in late October. Drawing on a socially conscious jazz / hip hop template recalling Tom Scott's Avantdale Bowling Club, the single delivers a bitingly raw commentary on everyday racism faced by Pasifika people in Aotearoa. A video-only release directed by Anahera Parata and starring Chris Alosio, the powerful visuals were shot "in affluent Herne Bay, Auckland in the only Pacific owned home on the street, which is occupied by a Tongan family who have lived there for four generations" – a home which provided space for family groups to hide out during the dawn raids in the mid-1970s. C.C.