Some Sweet Kiwi Music Videos Chosen By Sweet Mix Kids

Last year Show Me Shorts screened this great music video from Sweet Mix Kids. In honour of NZ Music Month, they have invited Chris Scott (one half of the Auckland-based DJ duo) to share three of his favourite Kiwi music videos. He and Sandon James have played many of the world’s coolest parties and clubs, including Coachella, Wanderlust and Rhythm & Vines music festivals. They have toured with Flume, Empire of the Sun, Kimbra, Schoolboy Q, Hilltop Records, Ryan Hemsworth and Baauer. You can check out more of their own music videos here.

Hi, Chris here from Sweet Mix Kids. When we’re coming up with concepts for our own music videos we always think about what makes our favourite New Zealand clips special and memorable. Great local videos embody the Kiwi spirit; they’re clever, fun, engaging and make the song come alive. There are amazing videos being released every week, so to make it easier on myself, I’ve picked three of my favourites from a few years back when I was growing up watching Juice TV and C4 that still pop into my head whenever I’m thinking about iconic New Zealand music videos.


Rhombus – Clav Dub

I actually first saw this Rhombus clip before I was exposed to the classic Kiwi film Goodbye Pork Pie in my high school Media Studies class; so although the references didn’t make much sense it was a fun and memorable little narrative with a tone that reflected and enhanced the song – as all good music videos should. After seeing the film I went back and appreciated the video even more for what it is – an adorable visual and spiritual homage to one of our most treasured cinematic milestones, and a perfect vessel for this bouncy track – featuring a young Tiki Taane in MC Rizzla mode and the inimitable freestyle flow of ‘MC Murkwon’ AKA Imon Starr, now of Olmecha Supreme fame.


Kora – Skankenstein

I first caught a glimpse of this clip on a muted television not realising it was a music video, and as a fan of series like Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion and Dragonball Z, I was instantly sucked in by the style and presence of the animation. Once I managed to identify it as the video for Kora’s Skankenstein I could not have been more impressed. When it was released in 2008, New Zealand music videos had a certain ‘look’ that could always be spotted a mile away next to their international counterparts. By going the animation route, Kora had managed to create something so singular and cool that I had mistaken it for a new show I was ready to watch an entire series of, especially with the song’s menacing gallop as the soundtrack.


Shapeshifter – Monarch

I am such a sucker for a good tour video, and nobody has a better archive of gig footage to draw on than Shapeshifter. These guys are a national treasure when it comes to performance, so what better way to give visual context to their music than to capture the elation of a huge crowd experiencing it live? Pairing the anthemic track Monarch against a 5-minute video scrapbook of some of the band’s touring triumphs pulls on my heartstrings and gets my pulse racing the same way as if I was in the middle of the crowd with my best friends, all minus the occasional spritz of second hand beer from the bros moshing behind you.


You can watch more great music videos from the Show Me Shorts Film Festival archives here.