Múm - "They Made the Frogs Smoke..."

Múm (myspace link) is an Icelandic band of the deliciously deviant experimenting sort, arty artists all punked up with somewhere to go. The band is carried by the UK label Fat Cat Records, There is a duo, Gunnar and Örvar, at the helm of a foolish ship of seven band members. "They Made the Frogs Explode Till They Blew Up" (YouTube) is a found-footage reportage of old times and bygone eras as seen through the filter of creative sound artists. Sound sampling is derived from film cut-ups from home 16mm films, east european documentaries and old cartoons. Fat Cat Records seems to have a fabulous collection of idiosyncratic Icelandic artists, including the more well-known Sigur Rós, who has also tours and collaborates with Múm.

The animation, which is primarily why this posting is here, is created by the Icelandic artist Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir, who also did an animation for the Múm single 'go go smear the poison ivy.' The rough, intuitive and self-taught look of the animation also uses the found-footage collage of 1950's childhood, referencing the "picture-perfect" illustrations of children and animals. The blood-and-guts ripping to pieces of these little homilies to f*%$d up childhood move in the direction of the recently revived interest in psychotic outsider artist Henry Darger.

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