n what will hopefully be regular feature on Stylus (as long as that dude who filmed Reginald Denny getting beaten from a helicopter doesn’t get his way), we present our stash of YouTube clips worth watching. Or not worth watching. Or worth watching because they’re not worth watching. You get the point. On with the show…

We’re in Japan (or Camden) this week for a series of videos that make you wonder why any band would really still allow themselves to be constrained by traditional (read: dull) performance videos and cool posturing, when they could be having so much fun.


Psycho le Cému – Prism
The amazing costumes! The dancing! The comically oversized bow and claws! Levitation followed by swooping through trees in pursuit of another person! Psycho le Cému’s commitment to extreme fashion extends outside of their day-glo videos: Guitarist Aya (he’s the one with the pink hair) regularly appears as a model in the Gothic Lolita Bible, chief magazine for one of the more fascinating and outlandish fashions to have originated in Japan.


Malice Mizer – Beast of Blood
Malice Mizer’s Mana (another guitarist, incidentally) was one of Gothic Lolita’s pioneers and his band’s videos and music are, to put it mildly, extravagant. The sped-up classical harpsichord melodies tied to crushing riffs reminds me of Muse, but Bellamy and company have never elevated gothic melodrama to quite such heights nor captured such perfectly matching visuals.


Kana – Hebi Ichigo
Kana achieves startling creepiness by far simpler means: “Hebi Ichigo” is constructed out of wobbly, washed out footage of her shrouded in red light and, crucially, not really lip-syncing at all. The disconnect between hearing her screeching, intense vocals and seeing her distracted, offhand mumblings on camera makes for uncomfortable and riveting viewing.


Dir En Grey - Obscure
Dir En Grey, in contrast, favors sensory overload—an approach that’s common in many J-rock videos—trying to squeeze as much horrific imagery as they can into four minutes. It’s kind of juvenile but also highly entertaining.


Polysics – I My Me Mine
And now for something completely different: Polysics are probably more J-indie than J-rock, but no matter: “I My Me Mine” is one of their most recent videos and features visors, dancing to fit their wired, jerky sound and countless moments of comic bizarreness that has to be seen to be believed.

Just because it’s equally fantastic, here’s their classic Transformers-themed “Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto”:



Special thanks to Propaganda TV at whose club night I first saw some of these.