Foals - Olympic Airways

What this video is

Released in October 2008 as the fourth and final single from Foals' debut album Antidotes, 'Olympic Airways' arrived at the apex of a UK indie-dance-punk moment heavily driven by NME coverage, blog-rock enthusiasm, and the Transgressive Records/Sub Pop transatlantic pipeline. Foals, formed in Oxford in 2005, were positioned at the intersection of math-rock precision and dancefloor accessibility, drawing comparisons…

Why it matters

A landmark document of the UK indie dance-punk moment of 2007–2009, this video exemplifies how Transgressive-era acts used lo-fi surrealism and naturalistic cinematography to carve a distinct visual identity. Dave Ma's recurring collaboration with Foals helped codify a pastoral-meets-abject visual…

The director

Dave Ma is a director and photographer who established himself in the London music video scene in the late 2000s. Born the son of a Chinese greyhound trainer and an Australian maternity nurse, he studied Psychology before pursuing film. He built an extensive…