A self-proclaimed "one-man beat wizard," whose Facebook bio references such descriptors as "ginger," "hairy" "stinky," and "drugs," the Omaha, Nebraska native Darren Keen specializes in a freakish blend of footwork and bass music that gets rolled together into a stanking blunt of polyrhythmic melodies that make you want to close your eyes and have a thrash around at the same time. Needless to say pretty much everything the now-Brooklyn-based producer/DJ does is fucking weird—but nevertheless, we like it. Following the release of Keen's latest album He's Not Real (released on Orange Milk Records) in August of 2015, we're thrilled and slightly frightened to share with you a music video to album track "It's Hard To Say No." In classically Keen-ian style, the track reimagines Chromeo's uplifting dance-pop number "Hard To Say No," from their 2014 LP White Women, turning the once mom-friendly number into rapid 2-minute assault of rapid bass stabs and a spastic footwork breakdown that occurs not once, but two times. Equally basking in glorious weirdness, the video itself was filmed on a 2001 Sony camcorder at a NYC club night in the summer of 2015, and features a lot of night-vision, voguing, and intentional distortion.[Editor's note: This video was directed by Charlotte Japp, who works in VICE's creative department] Darren Keen is on FB // Soundcloud. Editing and analog effects by Videopunks.
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