''Monkey Drummer'' is a 2.5-minute-long

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

created by British music video director

Chris Cunningham Chris Cunningham (born 15 October 1970) is an English video artist and music video director who directed music videos for electronic musicians such as Autechre, Squarepusher, and Aphex Twin and Björk. Early in his career he worked as a com ...

in 2001. It features music by

Aphex Twin Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), known professionally as Aphex Twin, is a British musician, composer and DJ active in electronic music since 1988. His idiosyncratic work has drawn on many styles, including techno, ambient music, ambi ...

Content

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

. It is the 10th track on his album ''

Drukqs ''Drukqs'' (stylised as ''drukQs'') is the fifth studio album by the British electronic music artist and producer Richard D. James under the alias of Aphex Twin. It was released in October 2001 through Warp Records. It is a double album that ...

'', which was released in 2001.

Production

The owner of the different body parts playing in the video is

Sigtryggur Baldursson Sigtryggur Baldursson (born 2 October 1962) is an Icelandic drummer and singer. Sigtryggur was born in Norway to Icelandic parents. He was a founding member of the Sugarcubes and has been a longtime fixture on the Icelandic punk and alternat ...

, a founding member of Icelandic rock band

The Sugarcubes The Sugarcubes () were an Icelandic alternative rock band from Reykjavík formed in 1986 and disbanded in 1992. For most of their career, the band consisted of Björk Guðmundsdóttir (vocals, keyboards), Einar Örn Benediktsson (vocals, trumpe ...

, and a retired member of the band Kukl. He was shot multiple times in various positions with his torso being removed in

post-production Post-production, also known simply as post, is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording indivi ...

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.

Release

The video was commissioned by the

Anthony d'Offay Anthony, also spelled Antony, is a masculine given name derived from the '' Antonii'', a '' gens'' ( Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descen ...

Gallery in London and was meant to be a companion piece to his

Flex Flex or FLEX may refer to: Computing * Apache Flex, formerly Adobe Flex, technologies for developing rich internet applications * Flex (language), developed by Alan Kay * FLEX (operating system), a single-tasking operating system for the Motorol ...

commercial, but it was not completed in time for the exhibition in September 2000 and instead made its debut at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture 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 Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

, Scotland.

Further information

*The video was distributed on a

Creative Review ''Creative Review'' is a bimonthly print magazine and website. The magazine focuses on commercial creativity, covering design, advertising, photography, branding, digital products, film, and gaming. The magazine is published bimonthly in print an ...

DVD in November 2001, and is also featured on the DVD ''

Directors Label ''Directors Label'' is a series of DVDs released by Palm Pictures compiling the work of notable music video directors. The series' first three volumes, featuring the work of Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham, and Michel Gondry, were released in 2003 ...

: The Work of Director

'', which was released in 2003. *The video went on to win Best 3D animation in a music video in the International Monitor Awards in 2002.

References

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External links