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Who is Hitchhiker, and why can’t we stop watching this video?

Can’t. Look. Away. 

Photo of Audra Schroeder

Audra Schroeder

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When’s the last time you couldn’t get a song with essentially no words out of your head?

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This is the effect of “11,” the latest track from mysterious Korean musician Hitchhiker. The song has no real, intelligible words, just a series of pitchshifted mouth sounds over sternum-rattling bass. The video is even more striking, featuring a series of CGI humanoids dancing around various neon urban landscapes.  

The video was released in early September, and it’s already surpassed 1 million views and racked up more than 24,000 dislikes. “Gangnam Style,” by comparison, only has 10,000 dislikes.

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On Sept. 5, days before the video’s release, Hitchhiker’s South Korean label SMTOWN released “The Story of Hitchhiker,” a satirical origin story for the “global superstar.” It features interviews with those who allegedly know and revere Hitchhiker, including a man wearing corpse paint. The interview subjects make grand proclamations like, “If it wasn’t for Hitchhiker, there wouldn’t be electronic music.”  

Diplo already gave him a shoutout, which got more eyes and ears on this bonkers video:

koreans always on that next next u feel me https://t.co/JTDFxZiOYB

— CATEGORY 6 PLURICANE (@diplo) September 17, 2014

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Is corpse paint guy really Hitchhiker? We may never know, but this is basically the new Spinal Tap.

H/T Laughing Squid | Screengrab via SMTOWN/YouTube 

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The Daily Dot