Here’s the latest oddity to emanate from the fevered brainpans of the psychedelic electronic duo known as Mutwawa. The group, a collaboration between Jason Hodges (Bermuda Triangles) and Gary Stevens (Head Molt) combine samplers, effects pedals, and endless tape loops to create a unique–and uniquely frightening–sound collage. In this video, they’ve paired their usual hallucinatory audio with equally trippy imagery. The video cuts back and forth between Mutwawa live performance footage, images of pyramids and tribal costumery, and strange cut-ups of visual imagery that is sometimes completely impossible to understand. There are images of Mutwawa members menacingly pointing machetes at the camera, like guerrilla warriors filming a video to be mailed to a corrupt dictator, and strange stone statues with heads not that different from the masks that Mutwawa wear while performing live. Some of the imagery even evoked the middle section of Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut–the glaring, immobile masks signaling an unmistakable evil intent. Mutwawa’s music has always seemed to me like the perfect candidate for a horror movie soundtrack. Now, with this video, it sort of is.
Here’s the latest oddity to emanate from the fevered brainpans of the psychedelic electronic duo known as Mutwawa. The group, a collaboration between Jason Hodges (Bermuda Triangles) and Gary Stevens (Head Molt) combine samplers, effects pedals, and endless tape loops to create a unique–and uniquely frightening–sound collage. In this video, they’ve paired their usual hallucinatory audio with equally trippy imagery. The video cuts back and forth between Mutwawa live performance footage, images of pyramids and tribal costumery, and strange cut-ups of visual imagery that is sometimes completely impossible to understand. There are images of Mutwawa members menacingly pointing machetes at the camera, like guerrilla warriors filming a video to be mailed to a corrupt dictator, and strange stone statues with heads not that different from the masks that Mutwawa wear while performing live. Some of the imagery even evoked the middle section of Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut–the glaring, immobile masks signaling an unmistakable evil intent. Mutwawa’s music has always seemed to me like the perfect candidate for a horror movie soundtrack. Now, with this video, it sort of is.
