Basement Jaxx - Where's your head at

Directed by Traktor, this music video is a very unique one as it focuses strongly on creating an immerse, vivid yet incredibly funny and humorous concept with very slight narrative to it too. Basement Jaxx are involved in the genres of House, Electronic and Dance and although this type of video isn’t typical at all from many genres, it does happen to suit the conventions of these genres well as it aims to provide a somewhat mesmeric, unreal and different approach to music videos when it seems things cant actually be real and therefore appear ‘out of this world’. They tend to lack strong narrative and consequently don’t entirely seem to make much sense as to what is happening or to why exactly it is happening, however this is actually the desired effect that the musicians have for the video as it makes it appear mysterious and inexplicable. It allows the audience to really have to try hard in order to figure out what is happening or just simply enjoy the music video for what it is and what it does. (Strong concept based videos are often apparent with similar genres as to the ones that this group reside with.) Similar artists/groups such as Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim also use the same types of music videos to attract audiences to their work.

The concept of this video generates a weird and bizarre reality where it seems as if the main character has been somehow thrown into an illusionary world that doesn’t actually exist (the “armpit of nowhere” as he calls it – ironically he refers it to as an armpit allowing it to convey filthier, polluted connotations than anything else). Experiments have been produced by scientists and are enabling monkeys to be slowly, but surely, transforming into human beings, as we start to see the monkeys develop human faces/ traits. This concept corresponds to the title of the song as it relates to the questionable events that are taking place and exposes the unordinary monkeys that exist in the video. The scientists are supposedly trying to make the monkeys develop musical traits that are only shared through humans as in the beginning of the video the main character says the scientist claims to have the “latest thing in pop music”. There is a man with a guitar in a stretcher, and this is foreboding of what is to come in the video. To that we are immediately introduced to the song. After a short while we see the monkeys arrive to the scene and start playing various instruments such as a guitar and DJ decks etc. Close up shots of the monkeys are shown in order to capture the hilarity and strangeness of them having human faces and playing the instruments.

The close-ups also show off the technical brilliance that the video possesses as the faces are very accurate in appearance, behaviour and proportions when applied to the monkeys’ and they also move accordingly to how the monkeys’ bodies move, this creating a very realistic touch to the effects. The faces are of the band mates and this could also possibly convey how eccentric and strange of a group they are as it suggests their music is wild and untamed just like monkeys. It expresses a comedic, absurd yet oddly fascinating approach that they bring to their work and displays their uniqueness. It gives off a tone of dark humour and shows that they do not take their work too seriously and prefer to have fun with things as well.

Later we see the monkeys begin to lose control and instead of playing the instruments, they begin to start eating on them instead. They first start lashing out in a wild outbreak and violently sing along with the chorus. It correlates well with the monkeys as it is a very up-beat, rough and loud, which makes it have a strong synchronisation between the audio and video since the monkeys also begin acting very rough, brash and angry. There is a foretelling of what is shortly to come when we see one monkey put it’s hands on its head in anxiety and the scientist does the same. As the monkeys start to tear the room/ equipment up out of their own frustration and instinct, so does the scientist.

This could symbolise mind control and leadership and furthermore suggest that the monkeys are now in charge and have the authority. As the monkeys then proceed to attack the main character, we are presented to low-angled, eye-lined matched shots to show the superiority of the monkeys and how they are now looking down on the human beings to show how the tides have now turned.

There is a shakey camera used within this scene to emphasize the fright and terror in the scene, in which our protagonist is going through. When the main character realises what exactly is going on and discovers of the scheme of the scientists trying to get him to turn into a monkey he attempts to flee. Throughout this scene there are many editing and camera techniques present, such as quick cuts that take place and help to build panic and distress which illustrate the protagonist's emotions and feelings at the time. The many extreme close-ups and close up shots throughout the scene also build a sense of claustrophobia, which in addition builds further tension and discomfort through the characters and scenes. While fleeing he falls through a hole in the wall and stumbles the human beings' (assumingly the group's bodies) who now have the monkey faces to replace their own. The main scientist then returns back to the scene with a dog that has his own face on as well. He talks and smirks at the main character whilst he is still on the ground immobile, and this suggests his inability to do anything to save himself and his degree of helplessness.

I believe there could possibly be subtle intertextuality throughout the music video as there are faint relations to the story of ‘Planet of the Apes’. Many references to the movie apply here through the obvious ideas of primates taking over and becoming the new, dominant race but also we have the main character seem to find himself in somewhat of another world as do to his arrival he spoke of the place as the “armpit of nowhere”.

I consider this to be a very successful video as although the plot of it may not make total sense it still remains with strong amusement, technically impressive and leaving the audience to marvel in awe at what they are watching and above all else it is also incredibly unique and takes a different approach rarely seen in various music videos allowing itself to become special and memorable among many.