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Monkey Drummer is a 2.5-minute-long music video created by British music video director Chris Cunningham [1] in 2001. The video was commissioned by the Anthony d'Offay Gallery in London and was meant to be a companion piece to his Flex commercial, but it was not completed in time for the exhibition in September 2000 and instead made its debut at the Venice Biennale's 49th International Exhibition of Art in June 2001. It subsequently went on to run in several exhibitions such as the Edinburgh Festival, Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland. The short is a humorous, kinetic study of a mechanical being with nine appendages—six arms, two legs, and one drumstick penis—all seemingly controlled by the head of a monkey, though it is unclear what is in control. Each flesh-and-blood body part juts from a black steel appendage and acts human, while being controlled mechanically.
The music playing in the video is the first two and a half minutes of "Mt Saint Michel + Saint Michaels Mount" by Aphex Twin. [1] It is the 10th track on his album Drukqs , which was released in 2001.
The owner of the different body parts playing in the video is Sigtryggur Baldursson, [1] a founding member of Icelandic rock band The Sugarcubes, and a retired member of the band Kukl. He was shot multiple times in various positions with his torso being removed in post-production and replaced with a mechanical torso.
"The idea came from those little mechanical windup monkeys from the last century, the ones with the red faces. ... Thought it would be really amazing to see a 21st Century one that was drumming to something ridiculously insane like a really fast Aphex Twin track."
Head puppetry was performed by Paul "Slash" Morris and Justin Flack.
Chris Cunningham is a British video artist and music video director, best known for his music videos for electronic musicians such as Autechre, Squarepusher, and most notably Aphex Twin on videos for "Windowlicker" and "Come to Daddy", and Björk's "All is Full of Love". All were used in Chris' chapter in Director's Label. He has also created art installations and directed short movies. He was approached to direct a movie version of William Gibson's cyberpunk novel Neuromancer; the project has been in development hell for more than two decades. In the 2000s, Cunningham began doing music production work, and has also designed album artwork for a variety of musicians.
Nothing Records was an American record label specializing in industrial rock and electronic music, founded by John Malm Jr. and Trent Reznor in 1992. It is considered an example of a vanity label, where an artist is able to run a label with some small degree of independence within a larger parent company, in this case the larger company being Interscope Records.
Warp Records is a British independent record label founded in Sheffield in 1989 by record store employees Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell and record producer Robert Gordon. It is currently based in London.
Tom Jenkinson, known professionally as Squarepusher, is an English electronic musician, record producer, bassist, multi-instrumentalist and DJ. His music spans several genres including drum and bass, IDM, acid techno, jazz fusion, and electroacoustic music. His recordings are often typified by a combination of complex drum programming, live instrumental playing, and digital signal processing. Since 1995, he has recorded for Warp Records as well as smaller labels, including Rephlex Records. He is the older brother of Ceephax Acid Crew.
"Windowlicker" is a song by British electronic musician Aphex Twin, released on 22 March 1999 as a single by Warp Records. The artwork for the single was created by Chris Cunningham, with additional work by The Designers Republic. Cunningham also directed the song's music video, which was nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Video.
Drukqs is the fifth studio album by Aphex Twin, the alias of British electronic musician Richard D. James, released in 2001 on Warp. It is a double album alternating primarily between tracks of meticulously programmed drum and bass-inspired beats and computer-controlled classical piano pieces. It features the piano composition "Avril 14th," one of James's best-known recordings.
Come to Daddy is an EP/mini-album by British electronic music artist Aphex Twin. The EP's lead single, and the first track on the EP, "Come to Daddy "—often simply called "Come to Daddy"—is one of Aphex Twin's best-known songs; it peaked at number 36 on the UK Singles Chart.
"Ventolin" is a 1995 EP by Aphex Twin, the alias of Richard D. James. It is noted for its harsh, abrasive sound. James recorded numerous versions of the piece under his Aphex Twin alias.
Rubber Johnny is a 2005 British experimental short film/music video written, directed, and produced by Chris Cunningham.
"All Is Full of Love" is a song by Icelandic musician Björk from her third studio album, Homogenic (1997). The lyrics were inspired by love in spring and Ragnarök of Norse mythology. Björk's original version is a trip hop ballad with soul influences, harp, strings, and electronic beats; the version on Homogenic is a minimalist remix by Howie B, emphasising Björk's vocals. A remix by the German IDM duo Funkstörung was released as a single in 1998.
Directors Label is a series of DVDs devoted to notable music video directors.
Seefeel are a British electronic and post-rock band formed in the early 1990s by Mark Clifford, Daren Seymour (bass), Justin Fletcher, and Sarah Peacock. Their work became known for fusing guitar-based shoegaze with the production techniques of ambient techno and electronica.
Flex is a 2000 video installation by the British video artist Chris Cunningham. It consists of a 15-minute film loop that endlessly depicts a naked man and woman floating in darkness, who by turns embrace and furiously beat one another, culminating in an act of anal sex during which they disappear in a blast of light. The film is set to an electronic soundtrack by Aphex Twin.
The discography of Richard D. James, an Irish-born British musician, consists of six studio albums, three compilation albums, 14 extended plays, seven singles, and 12 music videos, all released under his best known alias Aphex Twin. James has also released one studio album under the alias Polygon Window, one studio album under the alias Caustic Window, and one collaborative album with Mike Paradinas. Three compilation albums and 35 extended plays were released under other aliases.
"Sheena Is a Parasite" is the debut single by English rock band the Horrors, released in April 2006 by Loog Records.
Richard David James, best known as Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born British musician, composer and DJ. He is known for his idiosyncratic work in electronic styles such as techno, ambient, and jungle. Journalists from publications including Mixmag, The New York Times, NME, Fact,Clash and The Guardian have called James one of the most influential and important artists in contemporary electronic music.
Screaming Headless Torsos, also known as the Torsos or SHT is a jazz rock band formed in 1989 consisting of founding member and guitarist David Fiuczynski, vocalist Freedom Bremner, bassist David Ginyard, percussionist Daniel Sadownick, and the alternating drum chair of Jojo Mayer, Gene Lake, Skoota Warner and James "Biscuit" Rouse.
"Avril 14th" is a piano instrumental by the electronic musician Richard D. James, under his pseudonym Aphex Twin, released on his 2001 album Drukqs. It was recorded using a Disklavier, a computer-controlled piano.
"Come to Daddy" is a song by British electronic music producer Richard D. James, released under his main pseudonym Aphex Twin. It was released as a single through Warp Records on 6 October 1997, coinciding with the lengthier extended play release of the same name. A music video for the song was released, which ranked at number one on Pitchfork's Top 50 Music Videos of 1990s list. In October 2011, NME placed the song at number 42 on its "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years" list. The song peaked at number 10 on the Danish Singles Chart and number 36 on the UK Singles Chart.
Cheetah is an extended play by British electronic musician Richard D. James, released under the pseudonym Aphex Twin on 8 July 2016 on Warp. The name is a reference to Cheetah Marketing, a British manufacturer of microcomputer peripherals and electronic musical instruments in the 1980s.