"Where's Your Head At?" is a song by the band Basement Jaxx from their second album Rooty. This house song was recorded circa 2001 and relies on a sample from Gary Numan's "M.E.".

Music video

The disturbing-for-some music video, directed by Traktor, is almost as well-known as the song. The video starts out with a British man entering an undisclosed location ("the armpit of nowhere" as he calls it) to meet up with a man who claims to have "the latest thing in pop music". Meanwhile, a guitarist is shown being wheeled away in a hospital trolley, with the song starting when he lifts his head.

The man then meets up with a scientist (played by Czech actor Petr Janiš), who then shows him his idea -- monkeys playing music -- with the help of several props. The protagonist seems unconvinced and scoffs it off, but is later led to a room with a view of a large chamber with instruments used primarily by DJs. Monkeys later appear in the chamber and play the instruments, and it's revealed that their faces are actually those of humans (two are the faces of the band members Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe). This special effect was accomplished using superimposition. Later, the monkeys suddenly start tearing up the equipment and causing general havoc, a behaviour which inexplicably carries over into the scientist in a nearby room as well. They then attack the main character, who promptly flees.

During his escape, the protagonist stumbles upon a room containing a monkey and an unconscious human both hooked up to a machine. The monkey's face then becomes more human in appearance. The protagonist, now horrified, sees a diagram on the wall showcasing pictures of a human brain pointing towards several monkey brains. It turns out the "latest thing in pop music" is actually an experiment where musicians' brains are being transferred to monkeys, and he's planned to be the next victim. The video ends with him being cornered by the scientist and a dog, who also has the face of the scientist.

The clip went on to win two awards at the 11th Annual Music Video Production Awards for Best Electronica Video and Best Directorial Debut.

Remixes

The song was remixed by :

- a number of DJs including Stanton Warriors, Robbie Rivera, John Ciafone and Basement Jaxx themselves. The Stanton Warriors mix was included on a Japan-only unreleased songs/remixes EP in 2002.

- Klaas in 2008. However the song (for this remix) is listed as artist Jean Elan instead of Basement Jaxx.

References

External links

• A page with several Basement Jaxx videos, including "Where's Your Head At"