Music Videos Round-Up by DJ Transmitter for KEXP World Goth Day 2024

A good music video starts with a good song, the music that complements the picture. Therefore, you will watch videos for good new recordings in the broadly defined "Gothic" style.

This style stands out for taking on a theme that's hard to find in other genres – and it's usually not an easy theme. Therefore, the songs included in this compilation will not talk about easy things. "Goth" is the overflow of music and images with meanings – and those meanings are dark.

From clips, more than from movies, we remember scenes. The more scenes you remember, the better the music videos are. Here are a few such videos, from which scenes and their meanings can be saved in memory for really long time.

Kite – "Losing" (feat. Anna von Hausswolff and Henric de la Cour)

Loss. Sometimes in our lives it is so big that it takes away the sense of reality. This is what this beautiful music video tells us, consisting of scenes connected by the text and rhythm of the song.

Depeche Mode – "People Are Good" 

The symbolism of the scenes in this video can mesmerize and perfectly shows the duality of human passions. I especially appreciate the scene referring to the image from the Apocalypse: the dead horse and his unfortunate rider – death. The music video and the title of the song also perfectly match each other: where do most of the misfortunes in this world come from? That's why "people are good". And vice versa: why do many misfortunes manage to be prevented? Because people are good.
 

Kontravoid – "For What It Is"

Do you feel sometimes like an alien in this world? This feeling is highlighted here in an excellent grotesque scene in which Cameron Findlay in an inseparable mask and a cat look at each other in great amazement.

Holy Wire – "Lost"

Lost. It is emphasized here by an eloquent shot with the hand of a stranger emerging from the mess on the shelves in the room. Like in some old school “giallo” movie…

Curses – "Miriam"

Miriam... there are names that contain almost everything. Just like in this music video – mesmerizing with super-realistic scenes that evoke the best traditions of black, gothic romanticism under the sign of, for example, The Sisters of Mercy. Since 2022, when this clip was made, I can't take my eyes off it. I have a few favorite scenes here… That's where Miriam comes in.
 

Bram Droulers – "Blue Tomorrows"

Bram Droulers is a musician and filmmaker from the United Kingdom, whose debut LP "Problème De Normalité" was released in the fall of 2023. In his music, cool and minimalist, this artist most appreciates rhythm and text. The music videos he creates for his own songs perfectly show the phenomenon of the presence of music in life. Thus, it often appears as if "on the sidelines of events" and makes certain moments that we might not pay attention to, we can remember all our lives. Bram Droulers' music videos are just such "musical moments", combining sounds in memory and imagination with everyday events – someone's look, facial expression, the way he puts steps... I perceive this musician as a true artist of the image.

So, finally, the meeting of two young people in the "Blue Tomorrows".