Synopsis

A slow virtual camera drifts through a bleak, frozen world where abstract geological shapes become a dense modern city. Traffic, unfinished human figures, armed robots, wreckage, bodies, and vehicles hang motionless in the air as the camera moves through the devastation. The journey eventually reaches a huge, apparently dead creature with a catlike form and enormous teeth. The video offers no clear explanation for the catastrophe, leaving open whether the beast caused the destruction or is another victim of it.

Factoids & Trivia

• The official video was released in an "uncensored" version and was credited to Puzzl3 Pictures.

• Rather than cutting rapidly with the track, the video uses an extended, simulated crane shot. The camera is almost the only thing that moves, creating a striking contrast with the song's highly active rhythm.

• The imagery was created almost entirely with computer-generated visuals. Its unfinished figures and angular environments deliberately expose the look of 3D modeling instead of hiding it.

• The final creature is intentionally ambiguous. It can be read as a monster responsible for the destruction, a victim of it, or a symbolic representation of the violence surrounding the city.

• The track was not a brand-new composition when the album appeared. Noisia have said it was begun around 2005, and an earlier form was already included on their 2008 FabricLive.40 mix.

• "Split the Atom" became the title track of Noisia's debut studio album, released in 2010. The single followed on July 25, 2010, with remixes by Bar9 and Ed Rush & Optical.