IDLES convey "monotonous hell" of work in new video for 'Stockholm Syndrome’

English rockers IDLES have released a music video for their cut 'Stockholm Syndrome', taken from their acclaimed 2021 album CRAWLER.

Starting with the band name 'IDLES' splashed across the screen in the colours used for the TikTok interface, the video makes its association with the mechanisms that rule or current cultural collective and capitalist idealism obvious.

Still from 'Stockholm Syndrome'.

The video was directed by Charlotte Gosch and band member Lee Kiernan. The first image to hold the screen is the bobbing heads of two young children on a mission to nowhere. With smirks dissolving into stoic expressions, the constant movement of the two figures is dizzying in its endurance.

In the middle of nowhere, assembly lines of masked workers are stuck in the push and pull of their inexplicable task. The only thing that sets these figures apart is their hair and their movement. The masks secure a clean slate, devoid of identity - something that is further enforced by their uniforms.

Still from 'Stockholm Syndrome'.

Along with the chorus "How can I feel myself / When I can't even feel my face? / I've got more stories to tell / I can't remember time nor place", the actions playing out on screen are fuelled by the angry confusion of the song itself.

The end of the video sees the two figures from the beginning colliding with the figures in the desert.

The directors spoke about the video, saying: “The process of making the video was very fulfilling for the both of us as we were able to physically create what we were imagining. Both the masks and shapes were handmade and painted by ourselves and friends.

“Working with our DOP Rob French we were also able to realise the long shots of each verse and the opening scene of the dancers. We both love the exhaustive and immediate feeling that a long shot can convey, like in Gus Van Sant’s Gerry, which we referenced quite literally.

“The initial idea of the video was to try and visualise the monotony hell of having to work to survive and how the ‘machine’ eventually engulfs you and strips you of your freedoms. But we wanted to achieve this in a metaphorical way that kept the meaning as open as possible. So it becomes rather a visual representation that can be read in many different ways.”

Watch the music video for 'Stockholm Syndrome' below.