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Glitch Video Game Nightmares Can Be Beautiful [Music Video]

Sam Rolfes' video for Amnesia Scanner's "AS Chingy" makes no sense, but it's awesome.
Images courtesy the artist

We don't exactly know what's going on in Sam Rolfes' music video for Amnesia Scanner's "AS Chingy"—and he won't tell us. It looks like some sort of mind-destroying video game, or an alien invasion into our own brains. It feels like a video game with mechanics designed by a chipmunk on acid. Like that GIF of Donald Trump's sincerity meter malfunctioning. These impressions are as much due to Amnesia Scanner's spastic music style, which goes from danceable to incomprehensible and back at the drop of a pin-studded, sweat-soaked hat.

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"'AS Chingy' is and remains gut-wrenching to listen to," Rolfes confesses to The Creators Project. AS dives headfirst into the mysterious Berlin producer duo trope, successfully creating a confusing yet intriguing vibe. Their website is all but incomprehensible and their AS EP is spread throughout hyperlinks accross the web. We know they've worked with the likes of Holly Herndon and Mykki Blanco, but not much else.

"The assorted Amnesia Scanner tracks that I manage to find littered around the web, hidden on cryptic pages, resonate with a very particular kind of psycho-digital neurosis in me," Rolfes continues. As such, he agreed to a gag order preventing him from saying too much about the process behind his video for "AS Chingy." Here's what he could tell us:

"This is a live recording of an Amnesia Scanner performance done a few weeks ago, capturing the slow and violent progression of a colossal music festival stage taking on the role of the performer. The performance was recorded and captured live, the recording team consisted of myself and one other manning the camera, deploying survival measures, and attempting to survive the ordeal. The choreography was more or less written in ulcers across my stomach lining.

We also asked Rolfes how we're supposed to even feel after watching this thing. He responded, "I'd feel petty dictating how people should respond to the performance, but if it hurts, then you're at least viewing it from as similar perspective as I did."

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Watch the full video for "AS Chingy" by Amnesia Scanner below.

See more of Sam Rolfes' work on his website. Click here to try to learn more about Amnesia Scanner.

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