Obsolete computers, game consoles turned into instruments for rock song

In an old and empty swimming pool in Glasgow, musician Julian Corrie is surrounded by unusual instruments: a SEGA Mega Drive, a Commodore 64, many floppy disk drives and outdated hard drives.

The song he plays is called “Polybius”, reminiscent of a 1980s arcade game, and the source of an Internet urban legend wanting that its users would go crazy after using it. Far from this creepy tale, the video, in the words of its creators, is meant to be “a nostalgic farewell to forgotten friends.”

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A few weeks before the release, Scottish director and designer James Houston had reached out to Corrie and asked him write the lyrics for a song that would use outdated technology in an ensemble. Houston's creative experiment started in 2008, when he made a student film titled “Big Ideas: Don’t Get Any.” The short video was an unusual cover of Radiohead’s "Nude" that used rigged MIDI instruments along with old computer equipment.

That first film made an impression on many, including a prominent ad agency that was planning on making a big-budget remake without crediting Houston for his work. Lacking the money to sue the company, Houston decided to reach out to Corrie and the production studio Bold Yin, to create another piece that would effectively rule-out his competition. So far, it seems to have worked.