Synopsis

In a scrubby Hackney field, two rival squads assemble for what looks like a military standoff. Colored smoke and a flag act as the opening signals, but the battlefield is stripped of real weapons: the combatants charge with water pistols and improvised gear. Cut with the swagger and escalating tension of an old war movie, the clip turns a childish water fight into a mock-epic confrontation, matching the track's aggressive bass, breakbeats and sudden bursts of impact.

Factoids & Trivia

• The concept was inspired by the filmmakers' shared affection for 1980s war movies. Their aim was to recreate the genre's bravado and visual language while giving it a deliberately comic, contemporary twist.

• The video was filmed in Hackney over an unusually warm October weekend. The cast had to stage the water battle outdoors in the middle of October.

• Contemporary filmmaking coverage singled out the Canon EOS 7D as the camera used for the shoot, highlighting the clip as an example of the striking results possible with the emerging DSLR video format.

• The moody, fast-moving track was used to build suspense between the two opposing teams. The flag and colored smoke function as visual "triggers" before the mock battle erupts.

• "Spheres Of Fury" was nominated for Best Budget/Independent Video - Pop, Dance, Urban at the 2010 UK Music Video Awards.

• Release material for the track reported that the video passed 700,000 views in a relatively short period, helping turn an underground collaboration into one of the more widely noticed electronic videos of its period.

• In 2010, the clip became part of a plagiarism dispute surrounding an "Animal Social" advertising campaign for Portuguese telecom brand Optimus. The agency acknowledged that the music video had been viewed as a reference before production, while rejecting the suggestion that the entire commercial was based on it.

• The song had already circulated as a sought-after dubplate before its official release. The accompanying EP eventually appeared in 2011 with remixes by Duran Duran Duran, The Teknoist and Techdiff.