Kirin J Callanan’s “Way to War” (NSFW)

When I first heard of Australian noise artist Kirin J Callanan, a friend in New York who was making the rounds at CMJ tweeted something which likened the artist to Nic Cage’s intensely twitchy protagonist in David Lynch’s Wild At Heart. A comparison that quickly got me wondering, “who the hell is this?”

I looked Callanan up and very little info came up other than A) a video of a fascinating street performance with a bunch of guitar pedals, B) a review of his performance at Glasslands during CMJ referencing Brecht, C) info about his new single on Grizzly Bear’s Terrible Records label, and D) an extraordinarily superfreaky NSFW video composed of a twisted series of gifs with Callanan, a naked woman in a burkha, a child, and a white pony.

It’s all very surreal and reminiscent of the films of Jodorowsky (who is one of Lynch’s biggest inspirations) and some ungodly but totally inspired combination of Rammstein and Iggy Pop. It’s definitely an acquired taste, but it is one of the most interesting videos I’ve seen all year. And it’s defiantly, endlessly watchable.