In April 2020, electronic music label Spinnin’ Records, released Nils van Zandt’s ‘Hide & Seek’ an electric dance song which features vocals from the beautiful Grace Tither. As if the song wasn’t fun enough, we were blessed with an epic animated music video that sucked us in to our deepest 8-bit video game fantasies.
Spinnin’ Records is the world’s leading dance record label. Founded in 2007, they are now home to the world’s biggest names in electronic music including Marshmello, Avicii, Tiesto & Calvin Harris. DJ/Producer Nils van Zandt is one of their many artists and has been on my radar since 2008. Hailing from the Netherlands, he now has a huge fan base with many of his hits reaching millions of streams on Spotify and was even nominated for ‘Club Hit of the Year’ at the NRJ DJ Awards. His music is my go-to when I need to dance because his style is consistently up-beat and fun. For ‘Hide & Seek’ he pairs up with English singer/songwriter Grace Tither.
Her pop style vocals are so unique and work perfectly for the overall vibe. The song taps into a few different styles of music including, psy-trance, dance, pop and even a bit of slap house. It appeals to a broad audience because it’s totally relatable. It appears to be about a pleasure, whether it be a romance or other, that you just can’t get enough of and keep coming back for more. It’s not possible to sit still when I’m listening to this and I love how catchy it is!
The music video is that of all my animation dreams combined. It starts off as an 8-bit video game title screen with a flashing START button which is in a really neat pixel font. This video tells a story, starting when we are introduced to our protagonist in his cool varsity jacket, playing an alien themed video game in an arcade. I need to point out how awesome the detail in the arcade carpet is here and the animated glow coming off of the machines is so cool! Our main character gets sucked into the video game and the whole style of the cartoon changes. Inside the video game, the animation becomes 8-bit and retro with some wild glitchy transitions.
We watch him run through the game and are introduced to the female character who we had a glimpse of in the title screen shot. She seems to be waiting for him and we see the love connection between the two characters. Finally, they come face-to-face with the villain, the alien. This introduction is perfectly timed with the lyrics “I can hide but not for long…” There is a fight scene and then the characters decide to run for their lives in another timed lyric of “I know just what I’m running from”. Finally, they escape the game and we get to see them both in their ‘real world’ animation and then they run off together. The color choices in the music video are very cyberpunk, using a futuristic palette of pinks, purples and blues. The animated video is fun and friendly and totally matches the vibe of the song.
This is what I love about animated music videos, they allow you to tell a really crazy and creative story that would be difficult to capture with live actors and cameras. The choice to combine multiple retro cartoon animation styles makes this particular video even more interesting and fun to watch. Spinnin’ Records never lets me down and Nils van Zandt’s ‘Hide & Seek’ is an absolute club banger. I’m obsessed with the animated music video and the level of quality we get with the retro cartoon. It has captured the perfect world where old school video games meets new school pop psychedelic trance music, a place I don’t ever want to leave.
Check out Nils van Zandt’s animated music video for ‘Hide & Seek‘ featuring Grace Tither on Spinnin’ Records’ YouTube channel here: