Rabbit in Your Headlights

When electronica supergroup UNKLE came into existence in 1998, they were lauded as a hitherto unknown but innovative concept that pushed the boundaries of late-millennium rock like no other act. Their debut album, the grandly constructed and totally awesome ‘Psyence Fiction’, was a magnum opus that broke free of the strictures of preconceived, established contemporary genres; it was a singular project with no precedents. Much of the success of ‘Psyence Fiction’ could be credited to the far-reaching conceptual vision of James Lavelle (founder of revolutionary dance label Mo Wax), who unified all the seemingly disparate elements that comprised the bulk of the album, and the prodigious dexterity of progressive hip-hop genius DJ Shadow, who anchored the proceedings with his arsenal of futuristic and radical beats and underlays. Check out the paranoiac, unsettling ‘Rabbit in Your Headlights’, the lead single from ‘Psyence Fiction’, featuring the distinctive vocals of Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, and abetted by a highly acclaimed, masterfully directed video clip by Jonathan Glazer that neatly encapsulated the pre-millennium tension that was so prevalent back in the day.