Photo: Stian Andersen
Let’s just say from the mood set by Röyksopp’s cinematically foreboding “The Inevitable End” album opener “Skulls”, we weren’t in anyway envisaging that the electro-headed two-some would bring to the table anything but visually dark with a touch of sinister undertones in the form of a video presentation.
As upon, hearing the track itself initially before the album release, it was my considered opinion that “Skulls” came across as a grandiose piece of sci-fi that could have been made by some otherworldly Daft Punk relatives living out there in the cosmos.
That maybe where the track took my mind, Röyksopp’s interpretation of it is nothing so dramatically glamorous, than taking an eerie night trip out to a cabin in the heart of a forest setting where they appear to have gone out on a past the midnight hour rave up. No tinsel. No twinkly lights. This isn’t no Christmas party shenanigans by any means, being that it is full of stark imagery, strobe lighting and ritualistic tendancies.
The very nature of the video, does appear to mark some future storytelling unfolding here, which possibly Röyksopp will pick up on and carry through further with or not, on subsequent videos applicable to “The Inevitable End” album campaign.
Whereas “Skulls” might not be the most typical kind of track you’d see out the end of the year on, it does by the same token come from one of this years outright best electronic albums.