Pop quiz, hot shot. What is Alex Metric and Mark Yardley's video for "Ilium" referencing?A. 2001: A Space Odyssey
B. Greek Mythology
C. Shakespeare
D. Dan Simmons
E. All of the AboveIf you didn't pick "E," you're wrong. (But also, come on. Always pick "all of the above!") It's okay. No one really expected a sleek, skinny-tie-wearing British DJ to make a video based on such heady stuff. But that's why this is so great.Basically, "Ilium" is a play off Ilium, a novel by the science fiction writer Dan Simmons—except it's just lots more ILL, you know? (Damn Brits.) And that novel intertwines references to Shakespeare with characters taken from everyone's favorite book in college, the Iliad.Just like in Dan Simmons' tome, the scenes in Alex's video start off in separate worlds: first, you see a robotic-looking astronaut manning his neon spaceship that looks straight out of Tron. Then, it cuts to a star-spangled light tunnel and red light orb (with Metric's logo) that's straight up Kubrick, before it switches to a bunch of mountains surrounded by lasers. Suddenly, shit goes down when the astronaut gets disconnected from his ship—and the three worlds start to collide.James Worsley and Pedro de la Fuente of Autobahn, the production company behind this video (of course it's called Autobahn), said, "When we first heard the track, we instantly thought of Retro Futurism." So to enhance the retro feel, they used an old Hi-8 camera to film the animation playing back on a monitor, which explains all that old-school static fuzzing up the screen. Steep yourself in nostalgia and watch the video above.Alex Metric and Mark Yardley (of Stanton Warriors) "Ilium". On his latest OWSLA release Ammunition Pt. 3
B. Greek Mythology
C. Shakespeare
D. Dan Simmons
E. All of the AboveIf you didn't pick "E," you're wrong. (But also, come on. Always pick "all of the above!") It's okay. No one really expected a sleek, skinny-tie-wearing British DJ to make a video based on such heady stuff. But that's why this is so great.Basically, "Ilium" is a play off Ilium, a novel by the science fiction writer Dan Simmons—except it's just lots more ILL, you know? (Damn Brits.) And that novel intertwines references to Shakespeare with characters taken from everyone's favorite book in college, the Iliad.Just like in Dan Simmons' tome, the scenes in Alex's video start off in separate worlds: first, you see a robotic-looking astronaut manning his neon spaceship that looks straight out of Tron. Then, it cuts to a star-spangled light tunnel and red light orb (with Metric's logo) that's straight up Kubrick, before it switches to a bunch of mountains surrounded by lasers. Suddenly, shit goes down when the astronaut gets disconnected from his ship—and the three worlds start to collide.James Worsley and Pedro de la Fuente of Autobahn, the production company behind this video (of course it's called Autobahn), said, "When we first heard the track, we instantly thought of Retro Futurism." So to enhance the retro feel, they used an old Hi-8 camera to film the animation playing back on a monitor, which explains all that old-school static fuzzing up the screen. Steep yourself in nostalgia and watch the video above.Alex Metric and Mark Yardley (of Stanton Warriors) "Ilium". On his latest OWSLA release Ammunition Pt. 3