Bloc Party - Mercury

What this video is

Released in August 2008 as the lead single from Bloc Party's third album Intimacy, 'Mercury' arrived at a pivotal cultural juncture when British indie rock's post-punk revival generation — forged in the NME ferment of 2004–2006 — was confronting the dominance of electronic and club music. The single's lyrics invoke Mercury in retrograde as an astrological metaphor for communication breakdown and relational…

Why it matters

A landmark document of the Indietronica / New Rave crossover, 'Mercury' captures Bloc Party at their most experimental — bridging angular post-punk and synth-driven electronic pop at a moment when those genre boundaries were dissolving across British indie. The video's body-horror surrealism…

The director

Ace Norton is an Asian American filmmaker born and raised in Venice, California, and a third-generation filmmaker. He signed to Partizan in 2007 and subsequently to Prettybird (London), Solab (France), and REPRESENT (Germany). He has directed over 80 music…