the astroturf riverbeds of puffy amiyumi

Most music videos are a snooze. In an instant, I can blast through the complete list of those I've actually enjoyed: Michael Gondry’s Bjorkish forest romps in Human Behavior and two devilishly clever spectacles directed by Spike Jonze—Fat Boy Slim’s Weapon of Choice with Christopher Walken and the narcotically rewatchable Sabotage for The Beastie Boys.

Well! After so many years, I’ve finally found a new addition to this very brief list: Puffy de Rumba. I discovered it on LinkTV, Music Video Block #161 for the ambitiously interested. A stationary set of Jpop stars gaze into the camera and synchronously swing their left arms (only) as their stock back-up tribe does same. They don't so much sing as dully intone, yet the rhumba makes it hypnotic. Meanwhile, the camera cuts to Jimi Hendrix, who stumbles through a Magic Garden-variety set and eats some glazed-looking, '70s-era, red-capped mushroom. He falls in a Wonka chocolate river. The dewy-eyed pretties discover him waterside. And that's not all. Find it, watch it. You will become problematically attached.