Ladytron - Destroy Everything You Touch

SEP 19 2005 · 12:00

Ladytron - Destroy Everything You Touch (2005) Director: Adam Bartley Era: Mid-2000s Electronica Revival (2005) - Peak era of UK electro-synth bands crossing into mainstream alternative, anchored by Ladytron's commercial breakthrough on Island/Universal with Witching Hour High curatorial value as a confirmed, fully sourced music video artefact from a pivotal moment in UK electronic music history. The combination of a documented directorial concept (Bosch-inspired purgatory), confirmed production credits (director, producer, editor), and the single's lasting critical recognition (Pitchfork Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s) make this an exemplary specimen of mid-2000s art-directed electronica video production. The practical creature and prosthetic FX work also provides rare documentation of pre-CGI-dominant genre aesthetics in UK pop video. Context: Released in 2005 as the second single from Witching Hour, Ladytron's third studio album and their major-label breakthrough on Island/Universal, 'Destroy Everything You Touch' represents the apex of the mid-2000s UK electronica revival. The band, formed in Liverpool in 1999, had helped pioneer a neo-new-wave synth aesthetic drawing on 1980s Eurodisco and cold-wave. The single reached number 42 on the UK Singles Chart, their highest charting position to date, and later ranked #137 on Pitchfork's 'Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s.' The music video's surrealist, creature-populated mountain journey, explicitly referencing Hieronymus Bosch, positions the band within an art-literate, darkly fantastical visual tradition unusual for mainstream electronic pop, reflecting the era's crossover between underground club culture and art-school sensibility. Director notes: Directed, conceived, and production-designed by Adam Bartley. Premiered August 8, 2005 (per IMVDb). Produced by John Adams; edited by Gareth McEwan (per IMVDb). On his portfolio, Bartley describes the concept as imprisoning the band in a 'virtual, self-imposed purgatory inspired by Hieronymus Bosch.' The video depicts Ladytron members hiking through a hostile mountain range, confronted by attacking two-legged creatures and icy wind blown by giant faces embedded in the mountainside, the faces being the band members themselves with snow-and-ice prosthetic makeup applied.