The grim love story between a genderless, computer-programming humanoid and an IBM 5155 portable computer virus comes to life in the new music video from Crash Override, a.k.a., Aron Johnson, for Ricky Eat Acid, the solo project from Maryland musician Sam Ray. Ricky Eat Acid's new single, "Nice To See You," carries the grimy tone of a garage house track that's been slowed down and arranged like a trap beat. For it, the 23-year-old computational artist created a surreal cybernetic abyss that places signature 3D humanoids in a storm of psychedelic neon patterns and abstract design animations.
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Crash Override tells Creators that the whole process began with a completely different premise, revolving around a character who gets his vision upgraded to see in a higher resolution. "In the beginning I kept coming up with one sided ideas but the longer I worked I knew the themes just didn't feel right for the song," he explains. "One night after sitting in front of my computer for hours I had this epiphany that living in this isolated world the character would be lonely, desperately lonely." After he had this breakthrough, the artist wrote a totally new treatment wherein a lonely character that works on a computer for a living discovers an attractive piece of code that lures him/her deeper and deeper into the depths of a virus until it's too late.
Some of the animation major visual markers have been cued in tandem with the music's syncopated drum beat, augmenting Ricky Eat Acid's chaotic soundscape. Crash Override confronts and mutates the bodies and faces of his two legged subjects to create interesting graphic patterns. Watch the video in full below:
The video is being released along with a remix EP which features reconstructed versions of "Nice To See You" by artists like Different Sleep, Indian Wells, and STUd1nt. Listen to it in full, below:
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