Does Robyn dream of electric sheep? The Swedish pop heroine conquers with her heatseeking missiles of nuclear emotions (see “Dancing on My Own,” “With Every Heartbeat,” “Be Mine!”), but part of why she rules is that beneath all those bursting feelings something uncanny, alien, metallic.
Norwegian electronic duo Röyksopp have a way of coaxing that otherworldly quality out of her: Their 2009 collaboration “The Girl and the Robot,” with its unrequited-love subject matter and futuristic Eurodisco churn, wasn’t that far off from previous Robyn (she’d even already done a playful song called “Robotboy”), but, well, this one was about unrequited love with a robot. And “None of Dem,” a Röyksopp production from her 2010 Body Talk album cycle, was a throbbing wee-hours mission statement: “Play some kind of new sound / Something true and sincere.”
In the new video for “Sayit,” a previously teased track from Robyn and Röyksopp’s upcoming Do It Again mini-album (due out on May 26 on Dog Triumph via Wall of Sound and Cooking Vinyl — pre-order here), the singer duets with what sounds like a hot ‘n’ bothered Speak and Spell. Robyn, whose fashion tends toward the adrogynous, appears here in a dress, and Röyksopp wear masks that Kanye West might approve. “We wanted it to look both unsettling and elegant,” says Svein Berge, who with Torbjørn Brundtland makes up Röyksopp. They got what they wanted.
Be sure to listen to title track “Do It Again,” and check out the chilling, exhilarating “Sayit” video above.
