Shelhiel unveils an intriguing backstory in new music video for ‘Superstrobe’

Malaysian pop maverick Shelhiel has released a music video for the title track of his 2020 EP ‘Superstrobe’.

• READ MORE: Shelhiel: The auteur riding a new “organic” wave of Malaysian pop music

The music video, which was released on Saturday (January 8) after a year in the making, serves as a prequel to the hyper-futuristic music video of ‘Star 星’, which starred Shelhiel as a semi-autobiographical character called Angel-527. ‘Star 星’ director Nelson Chong makes a return, as does Shanghai artist Cattin Tsai, who was behind the music video’s 3D environments and world-building.

The ‘Superstrobe’ video follows Angel-527 as he explores his origins and what that might mean for his present and future, beginning with a visit to his humble beginnings in a futuristic vision of Kedah, Malaysia. He soon discovers he is actually not a human but an angelic being, destined to be the guardian angel of the world.

Watch the music video for ‘Superstrobe’ below.

In a statement to NME, Shelhiel revealed that while the music video for ‘Superstrobe’ was supposed to lead the rollout of its 2020 titular EP, they wanted to do what was right for the final product, resulting in its release more than a year later. “Me and my team have been working hard for a year because we spent quite some time on designing the fantasy worldbuilding of ‘Superstrobe’ with the 3D team from China,” Shelhiel said.

“We wanted to make the best art possible.”

The ‘Superstrobe’ EP was ranked at number 18 in NME‘s list of the 25 best Asian albums of 2020.

More recently, Shelhiel teamed up with Filipino electronic music producer LONER on the classic UK garage-inspired track ‘Make Noise’ back in November. A month before that, he collaborated with Japanese producers Tomggg and phritz on the track ‘Love Ride’ as part of UNLIRICE’s ongoing music project to encourage more collaboration between artists in the region.

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