Aphex Twin's new music video imagines the world through AI eyes

The collaboration between Aphex Twin and Weirdcore arose after they played at the Fuji Rock Festival in 2017. Aphex Twin’s logo recently appeared mysteriously at Elephant & Castle in London and posters designed by Weirdcore have popped up in other locations around the globe including Turin, Hollywood, Tokyo, and New York. As well as directing an explosive new music video, Weirdcore conceived the visual aesthetic for the Collapse EP, including artwork and visuals.

Modern version of the ON video

Weirdcore has created a psychedelic film to visualise the track Collapse, featuring projection mapping and CGI that takes you on a rollercoaster ride that reaches a crescendo after four minutes. The trippy promo follows in the footsteps of the arresting imagery of Aphex Twin’s 1999 Windowlicker music video, which was directed by Chris Cunningham. In the Collapse video, Weirdcore references Chris Cunningham’s Johnny Rubber book and goes back in the Aphex Twin archives to the ON music video. He explains: “This video is really trying to be a modern version of the ON video, in terms of the use of abstraction and collage.”

Weirdcore has created visual worlds for several artists including MIA, Radiohead, Miley Cyrus, and Tame Impala. His aesthetic has been described by Dazed as ‘a hyperactive sensory assault’, and despite the critical acclaim his work has received, he prefers to remain anonymous behind the LED screens.

Weirdcore said of his experience in making the film: “This was a dream project, not only because I’d been waiting years for Richard (Aphex Twin) to ask me, but also the fact I was the creative director for the whole campaign. When I joined the Prettybird roster back in 2014, I was keen to do stills artwork, and this Aphex campaign is the perfect vehicle for that.”