Watch Van Staden & Böhm's Animated Video For 'Number One Girl Raver'

The race is on to be 'Number One Girl Raver', in the pulse-pounding animated video for Aotearoa happy hardcore duo Van Staden & Böhm's brand new single, out today via Sunreturn with highly covetable limited edition cap! Recently repped by Australian songwriting star Julia Jacklin, the now Naarm-based crew of Madison Van Staden (Moody.v & the Menstrual Cycle, Babyteeth) and 2024 Best Electronic Artist Tūī award winner Amelia Berry (Amamelia, Babyteeth, Fimo) invite fans to hop on board a club-pumping high speed joyride — feeling not unlike a fluffy platform-heeled spin on breakneck WipEout 2097 energy rush, as Van Staden intones "Even though you’re so far away, I feel your love like yesterday".

Director Simon Ward brings his own visual wizardry to VS&B's queer 'ardcore / hyperpop / bubblegum bass banger, crafting a dazzling clip made with support from NZ On Air. Ward drew inspiration from classic cart games and the Wachowskis' Speed Racer (2008) to conjure a low-poly world of thrills and spills — barreling past mirror-glass buildings and humungous CRT screens, taking out the competition with attitude and cuteness in abundance. A well-timed summer dance winner, smash play on 'Number One Girl Raver', cop that hat, pray for local VS&B shows, and don't miss Ward's collaboration with Grecco Romank at Kiriata Me Puoro - An Animation And Music Festival this Saturday...

"I just love how Happy Hardcore can combine over the top sweetness and real melancholy with this kind of tough, hard, blow up your speakers kind of sound. I wanted to try to really push that contrast.

With that in mind getting the vocal right was really important for Number One Girl Raver. I had sketched something out and Maddy came in and really made it into something special, coming up with the harmony that I think ties it all together." - Amelia Berry

"We feel more motivated to work on new music and the new VSB EP!" - Madison Van Staden

"The animation was made using a procedural car driving system in the 3D software Blender. You can set up a kinda rabbit on a path for the cars to chase. It took a lot of trial and error, with quite a few hilarious massive crashes before I got the right car animation. It was a bit like a combo of the movies Speed (1994) and Sorcerer (1977). Also there’s a few other performance moments in the video, the dancing driver at the bus stop is me in VR, with a headset and hand controllers, recording my movements. Luckily no one was around to see that in real life!" - Simon Ward

'Number One Girl Raver' is out today on major streaming services via Sunreturn.