One of alt-rock’s more creative artists, Sluka, recently released the music video for “Iko Iko,” a track lifted from Sluka’s album, Ready To Connect.
Sluka is made up of Anna Eppink (bass), Natalie Mouzooni (drums), and Christopher Sluka (guitar, vocals).
Based in SoCal, Sluka’s cover of “Iko Iko” takes the Dixie Cups’ tropical-flavored R&B/bubble-gum pop version into a darker place, mirroring the divergent politics presently pervading the world.
Born in Seattle, Christopher Sluka began his career in New York, surrounded by artists like Tears For Fears, INXS, Talk Talk, and Simple Minds. After recording a single in L.A., he found himself in Japan performing for enthusiastic audiences. While in Japan, he released two more albums, followed by a series of captivating and widely approved albums.
Categorized as alt-rock, Sluka’s sound is difficult to define because it’s constantly evolving, yet always stimulating and seductive, perhaps echoing the multiplicity of his other imaginative gift as a well-known surrealist painter whose works have been displayed in galleries around the world.
“Iko Iko” opens on a rolling, risk-imbued rhythm, rife with ghostly throbbing energy. Sluka’s voice exudes tight, tense tones of forbidding, almost dangerous timbres. Gang-like vocal harmonies infuse the lyrics with powerful resonance and manifest sonic textures.
“My grandma and your grand-ma were sit-tin’ by the fire / My grandma told your grand-ma “I’m gon-na set your flag on fire / Talk-in’ ’bout, hey now hey now I-ko, I-ko, un-day / Jock-a-mo fee-no ai na-né, jock-a-mo fee na-né / Look at my king all dressed in red I-ko, I-ko, un-day / I bet-cha five dol-lars he’ll kill you dead, jock-a-mo fee na-né.”
The music video, directed by Eric Bishop, depicts a blend of Tom Hanks’ character in Cast Away with a Lord of the Flies vibe. Set in a cave illuminated by flickering lights, the members of the band, with faces covered in lurid fluorescent markings, play their instruments, while Sluka sings with aggressive vehemence.
When the visuals shift outside the cave, the video presents a brutal existence characterized by survival of the fittest ferocity as individual conflicts ensue.
Potent and exuding primeval dynamics, “Iko Iko” surges with brio, cultural dislocation, residual murky dynamics, and the smoldering voice of Sluka.
