Slaves 'Sockets' by Ciaran Lyons

Shot in a tiny, claustrophobia-inducing flat and paired with some killer art direction, this video for Slaves' track Sockets is a wonderfully greasy and zany stop-motion piece directed by Ciaran Lyons.

Lyons himself plays the lead character, a sweaty, fidgety mess of a man stuck in front of his telly, undergoing some sort of nervous breakdown. Delirious and frightened, arms emerge from behind corners, threatening to suck his energy in strange, nightmarish ways. 

CIARAN LYONS:

"Laurie and Isaac's initial idea really caught my attention - they wanted electrical plugs going into eye sockets.

"My aim was to create a video that looked like an episode of Bottom directed by Jan Svankmajer. This aesthetic concept guided all my decision making - the grimy production design, the extensive use of action-based close-ups, the slapstick violence, and the Rick Mayall inspired performance. The shoot was divided into two different sections. They turned out to be hilariously different from each other.

"The first part took place in a London studio with the band. Laurie and Isaac are great natural performers, and we had a full camera crew, so it was pretty much a case of me standing back and saying: "Just do your thing". 

"The second part took place in a flat in Glasgow. It was me, my girlfriend and a good pal shut up in a blacked out room with a stills camera for 3 days. For this section, it was a case of me saying: "Do I look greasy enough?" and "Try to make the whisk hit me in the face."