Words by Martei Korley
Swedish rockers Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg were childhood friends and grew up playing in bands and working on various projects in studios throughout Göteborg (that’s Gothenburg too the rest of us) Sweden’s second city and home of both Volvo and Hasselblad.
After separate moves to the capital, Stockholm, they rejoined forces and became a production powerhouse under the moniker Bloodshy & Avant with credits including Britney Spears (they won a Grammy for best dance track with “Toxic”), Kylie Minogue and Kelis. Teaming up with a third band member, American Andrew Wyatt, they also opted for a new cool name: Miike Snow.
They quickly gained an underground buzz in the UK after releasing the single “Animal” from the 2009 eponymous album debut. This led to them remixing tracks for a bunch of other groups, including Passion Pit, Kings of Leon and Peter, Bjorn and John and they themselves were remixed by a host of others.
Why is this interesting to LargeUp? Because these dudes even remixed Jamaica to their soundtrack. The video for their track “Rabbit”, directed by Andreas Nilsson, is almost surrealist in scope and reminiscent of Gnarls Barkley in our opinion–only spiced up with some J’can style, replete with house-trained goats, Too Live Crew visions on Hellshire beach and dancers Mystique and Fiya too!!
Haha weird video, reminded me of the 80′s and not just the fashion or icons but the way it was shot and directed
This video is very creative, it’s well shot, edited, and directed, and i’m really glad it brought some euros to the talent involved… but i see it as european eroticization/fetishization of the African aesthetic, seen through a colonial lens. that’s where it lands for me. There’s the infantilization of the black man; he becomes a bearded child. there is a sense of irony that the white police officer bows to him… it’s treated like a joke… and even the 2 Live Crew album is fetishized and reenacted for the shock value of its blatant objectification of the African Queens’ form. The whole African as “novelty” has its roots to the very first Ballet every performed, which was called “Ballet du Etiopiques” and consisted of the French royal family parading around in African textiles imitating the royal court of Guinea.