Danny Brown Stars in Alt-J Video for REDUXER Collab “Deadcrush”

Alt-J have shared the video for “Deadcrush (Alchemist x Trooko Version),” their collaboration with Danny Brown off the forthcoming remix album REDUXER, out Sept. 28 via Canvasback/Atlantic. The album is a set of 11 “reinterpretations” of songs from Alt-J’s 2017 album Relaxer. Additional contributors include Pusha T, GoldLink, Lomepal, Kontra K, Rejjie Snow and Little Simz.

The “Deadcrush” video was directed by 2018 Sundance Film Festival Animated Short Film Jury Prize winner Jeron Braxton. It draws heavily from the aesthetics of ‘90s-era videogames, with references to the old Playstation and Sega logos, and the 3D art style of old-school adventure games like Grim Fandango.The piece continues the aesthetic established in the previous collaboration video for Pusha T and Twin Shadow’s remix of “In Cold Blood.”

Braxton said the psychedelic images are meant to be metaphors for how the CIA introduced guns and cocaine into the black community. “The introduction of weapons and cocaine in the black community gave power to the War on Drugs and the amount of Black men incarcerated creating this violent cycle of destruction that plagues the black community today,” he said. “Slavery never really ended but just evolved into mass incarceration.”

Watch the video for “Deadcrush (Feat. Danny Brown) (Alchemist x Trooko Version)” and listen to a 2011 Brown performance from the Paste archives below.