LORDE – “YELLOW FLICKER BEAT”

Whilst the track was penned for The Hunger Games soundtrack, this video has little to do with the film itself (although Lorde did note on her Tumblr that the track was her "attempt at getting inside (Katniss') head”). In this visual, directed by Emily Kai Bock, the alt-pop teen is shown in: a seedy motel room with coiffed hair, a dimly lit kitchen in a dapper suit, a misty, lonesome road in a deep red velveteen dress and, as the chorus bursts into it’s skittering, electronic crescendo, a dark, expansive stage where Lorde dances alone like a starry marionette come to life.

FLYING LOTUS – “READY ERR NOT”

This brilliantly gruesome, NSFW music video for Flying Lotus’ glitched-up instrumental track “Ready Err Not” could be the most fucked up animation this side of Salad Fingers. That’s probably because it was made by the same creator – David Firth – who Flying Lotus praises as one of his "favourite animators of all time” and who is responsible for all the squelchy decapitations, one-eyeballed spider-babies and bloodthirsty umbilical cords that will haunt your nightmares indefinitely after watching this.

FKA TWIGS – “VIDEO GIRL”

Here’s another disturbing one. Avant-pop auteur FKA twigs dances expertly for a prisoner during his execution, in an unsettling black and white vision that's also injected with an image of Travi$ Scott displaying his bleeding grills. It’s a dramatic and characteristically stylish video from the fearless singer, who once again shows why she’s been changing the feel of modern pop music this year.

DIE ANTWOORD – “UGLY BOY”

Die Antwoord are famous for releasing daring music videos that make those of their rivals look like AS Level film projects. "Ugly Boy" is no exception. With a track that contains a lengthy sample from Aphex Twins’ “Ageispolis”, the freeky South African rap duo’s latest visual features metallic gold tracksuits, blood-filled guns, nipple tassles and the Cape Town "Ugly Boy" that frontwoman Yolandi Visser started seeing after she split up from bandmate Ninja. They’ve also lassoed an impressive melting pot of cameos from Marilyn Manson, Dita Von Teese, Cara Delevigne, Jack Black, Flea and the ATL Twins.

THE BOTS – “ALL I REALLY WANT”

Californian noise-punk duo The Bots satirize the Buzzfeed-ification of everyday life with their very own ‘Botsfeed’. LA brothers Mikaiah and Anaiah Lei are 21 and 17, and grew up drowned in the internet iconography of RuPaul’s Drag Race GIFs, YouTube cat videos, TV talent shows, and the nostalgia of Mary Kate and Ashley and Recess… All of this is scattered over this video like fertilizer, and it’s hilarious.

PHONY PPL – “END OF THE NIGHT”

This video takes us in all sorts of directions, just like the track it accompanies. In a sticky swirl of funk, R&B and Hip Hop, the just out-of-highschool nine-piece awake after the night before below the painted, twisting sky of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” This is before everyone vibes out in a backyard summer BBQ, drinks some jungle juice out of red cups and gets lost in a rabbit hole of kaleidoscopic visions. Just like all the best parties, then.

ARIEL PINK – “PICTURE ME GONE"

Aside from throwing shade at Madonna and Grimes respectively, Ariel Pink and director Grant Singer concoct a video featuring various people in unusual, clinging latex masks (one of which is a copy of Ariel’s own face). The underground LA musician says that the video "follows a day in the life of three men in Los Angeles in their search of meaning and happiness” and that it shows, “the characters Pam, Candace, and Heather squeezing into their second lives within a latex skin, in pursuit of sexual encounters and inner content."

KINDNESS – “WHO DO YOU LOVE” (FEAT. ROBYN)

The story goes that Robyn and Adam Bainbridge bumped into some angry metalhead in the street at 4am in Stockholm after a heavy night of drinking and karaoke. After a brief and calming chat, the stranger invited them back to his guitar store for a jam that lasted hours – and the pair were so touched by the exchange that they penned this track. Bainbridge says of the video, which was directed by Daniel Brereton, “It’s about people and connection, and how you can identify who you are by those you love.” Robyn echoed the sentiment, saying “There is so much information in the faces of people. And some people I love more than anything are in this video, together with the people that mean the world to Adam.” Amongst the black and white portraits in this beautiful array of faces is the metalhead from that night in Stockholm.

CLARENCE CLARITY – “THOSE WHO CAN’T, CHEAT”

Clarence Clarity's hypnotically colourful video looks a bit like a traditional filmic interpretation of an acid trip, but built for the Tumblr era. The skittish, enigmatic producer has combined a multi-coloured moving collage of digital art (which includes scantily clad dancing women, cartoon-ish dinosaurs and imposing, smudgy tower blocks) against the sound of Bhangra-style melodies, crashing electronic beats and breathless, yearning vocals.

HONEYBLOOD – “CHOKER”

Rich with poise and black-and-white drama, the latest video from Honeyblood takes its cues from the 1950s peak of Alfred Hitchcock, if the aforementioned had a soundtrack of Hole, The Breeders and early PJ Harvey. As noted on Dazed, the track is based on Angela Carter’s feminist reshaping of "Bluebeard" in The Bloody Chamber. The director of this clip, Julian Tardo, says, “It’s Bluebeard through The Bloody Chamber through film noir. I like layering these ideas over and over – I think the essence of human reaction becomes ever starker as you bury it in these layers.”