To mark the recent release of Damogen Furies, bleeding-edge artists Squarepusher, Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF), Blue Zoo and Rob Pybus have come together to create a virtual reality (VR) music video promo that can be experienced via VR headsets, mobiles, tablets and YouTube’s new 360º platform.

Following Squarepusher’s long history of exploring the creative possibilities of new technologies, the collaboration delivers a wry, humorous, dystopian narrative to accompany the lead track “Stor Eiglass” from Squarepusher’s Damogen Furies album.

DOWNLOAD THE APP:
IOS: http://smarturl.it/stor-eiglass-ios
Google Cardboard version: http://smarturl.it/stor-eiglass-play

For the fully immersive complete virtual reality experience: Samsung Gear VR smartphone users should download via the Oculus store; and Google Cardboard owners can download via iTunes or Google Play.

For the YouTube 360º experience: cut and paste this link (https://youtu.be/6Olt-ZtV_CE) into Chrome (use mouse or keyboard keys W/A/S/D to change perspective) or view via the YouTube app for Android (move device around to view different angles).

Go to squarepusher.net to view the 360º video, and use either the mouse of keyboard to navigate your way around the specially created world. Immerse yourself, but don’t get lost.

Series of Worldwide VR Installations: The VR video will be screened with headsets at a number of special events worldwide.
Tokyo Garden Hall: May 15
Sydney Opera House: May 22- 31
New York’s RBMA Studios on May 21 for the official closing party of Internet Week.

Launching today the promo is a very different twist on what would be expected from both Squarepusher and the nascent VR industry. The approach both celebrates and shreds technology that is set to become part of our lives in a much bigger way in years to come.

Described as an absurdist take on sci-fi tropes like a “reverse Inception”, Marshmallow Laser Feast’s creative director, Robin McNicholas, explains more: “We mimicked the track’s theme of twisting a genre to become the antidote of everything it stands for by using VR to frivolously highlight the possible perils of VR addiction. It was just an honest response to how the track appears to start as a super club anthem before subverting everything in the way Squarepusher does so well.”

The content was animated and coded by Blue Zoo, who worked alongside illustrator Rob Pybus to create a hallucinatory, supersaturated virtual world constructed out of Pybus’s unique drawings. In a just a few short weeks, Blue Zoo’s animators mixed 2D illustrations with a 3D world full of lucid environments and ‘Pybusian’ characters. This world was then coded into a mobile VR app that allows viewers to be thoroughly immersed into its strange alternate reality.

Blue Zoo’s Co-Founder, Tom Box, commented: “Recent leaps in VR technology mean for the first time we can now develop experiences which are instantly accessible by a mass audience. Developing a fully immersive world that mixes-up Squarepusher’s music, MLF’s creativity and Rob’s crazy illustrations was the perfect project to use these exciting emerging platforms.”

The complete Stor Eiglass VR experience can be viewed on Samsung’s Gear VR or Google’s DIY VR headset, Cardboard. The promo has also been timed to make the most of YouTube’s brand new 360-degree video platform, so people can move around the ‘video’ via their browser.

Catch Squarepusher live on his extensive world tour:
15th May – Garden Hall, Tokyo, Japan
16th May – The Star Festival, Kyoto, Japan
18th May – Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea
19th May – Arkham, Shanghai, China
22nd May – VIVID Live @ Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia
25th May – Movement Festival, Detroit, US
30th May – Life Festival, Belvedere House, Ireland
15th June – Plissken Festival 2015, Hellenic Cosmos, Athens, Greece
18th June – Sonar 2015, Barcelona, Spain
10th July – Peacock Society, Paris, France
16th July – Dour, Belgium
18th July – Lovebox 2015, Victoria Park, London, UK
31st July – Dekmantel Festival, Amsterdam, Netherlands
14th August – Boomtown Fair, UK
10th Oct – Nancy Jazz Pulsations @ L’Autre Canal, Nancy, France
21st Oct – Den Atelier, Luxembourg
22nd Oct – AB, Brussels, Belgium
24th Oct – The Troxy, London, UK