"Let's Tesselate"

Name of the Band: Alt-J ( the keyboard shortcut used on Apple OS X to insert the Greek letter Delta.)
Name of the song: "Tessellate"

tes·sel·late
[tes-uh-leyt; tes-uh-lit, -leyt]
verb (used with object)
1. to form of small squares or blocks, as floors or pavements; form or arrange in a checkered or mosaic pattern.

Only three regular polygons tessellate in the Euclidean plane: triangles, squares or hexagons.




Bite chunks out of me
You're a shark and I'm swimming
My heart still thumps as I bleed
And all your friends come sniffing.

Triangles are my favorite shape
Three points where two lines meet.
Toe to toe, back to back, let's go
My love it's very late.
'Til morning comes, let's tessellate.

Go alone my flower
And keep my whole lovely you.
Wild green stones alone my lover
And keep us on my heart.

Three guns and one goes off, one's empty, one's not quick enough
One burn, one red, one grin
Search the graves while the camera spins.
Chunks of you will sink down to seals
Blubber rich in mourning.
They'll nosh you up, yes they'll nosh the love away, but it's fair to say
You will still haunt me.

Triangles are my favorite shape
Three points where two lines meet.
Toe to toe, back to back, let's go
My love it's very late.
'Til morning comes, let's tessellate.

First scene of the video. The All seeing eye?



A "Scuola di Atene" Tshirt. This sets the tone of the video as it reveals to the viewer he is about to enter the new and improved "School of Athens" by artist Raphael in the lovely Vatican. A modern "High Renaissance" if you will.


this, btw, is the S chool of Athens



A triangle gesture reinforces the basic concept of the band. Or the Illuminati pyramid. Whatever rocks your boat.


As the Camera zooms out, we can see an obvious reference to Plato, pointing up to the sky, the non-material world. The lady in pink pointing forward most likely represents Aristotle, the material world. The Ghetto version of Abstraction & Ethics. If you think this is out there, try to recognize the main characters in the original "School of Athens" painting. Then find out what books they are holding. Then come back.


Meanwhile, on the right side of the frame...more triangle gestures. But only on the Aristotelian "material" side...hmmm.


oh alright, here's a closeup. Btw, look at the guy on the right. His tee reads "Raphael" the author of the original painting, just in case you still had doubts this is the modern "School of Athens".


Now, someone please help me on this one...what is that symbol on "Plato's" necklace? Maybe the letter T? But T represents what?


To me, it MIGHT be a suggest the name of the book plato is holding under his hand in the original School of Athens. "Timaeus".


In very basic terms, the Timaeus is Plato’s attempt to describe how the world came into being. Timaeus gives us the classical and ancient arrangement of the four elements, arranged in order of rarity to density: fire, air, water, earth. btw, I think these polygonal shapes might "tessallate"


So, Plato points again towards the heaven and in the window we see a Great white shark swim by. What is he trying to say about the trinity? Predatory God with doll eyes and 5 rows of sharp teeth? Or, the Gnostic Demiurge.


Speaking of animals, we see a big black dog. What does he represent? Sirius maybe? It's the brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere's sky. It's also the principal star in in the constellation Canis Major, meaning "Big Dog." Scientists have theorized that Sirius is actually a binary star, but the other star in the pair is actually a black hole. I don't know about this one, maybe this star system is where the Shark God lives. Enlighten me please.


Then we see a pretty lady in white, annoyed the two males on each side posing a familiar shape. As she poses, the song lyrics say "Triangles are my favorite shape". The dude on the left has a big piece of Bling-Bling hanging from his neck.


And by bling I mean Jesus bling.


again, more triangle gestures by the "others".


Can anyone tell me what is this Tattoo is? Is it a "Z" for Zeus? or maybe two fish, the Piscis symbol?


I mean, i know what these are



This man pours red wine on the floor before taking a drink. I do remember my parents doing this sometimes in family dinners. It's supposed to be for the dead relatives or something like that. Sometimes Saints or Spirits. Maybe there's a more dramatic reason that I ignore like spilling the blood of the Martyrs or Jesus' Blood.
I dunno.



Whoa, the camera is spinning around and around like a tire rim. Oh wait, it IS a tire rim. Meanwhile the song is saying "Search the graves while the camera spins." I did not find any.


The lady worshipping the Tire is saying something that is either secret or needs to be censored. Notice the pilexation around her mouth.


And she's not the only one!


Then, after some pannin' and zoomin' the video ends with this. The triangle is filled with the masked image of the Great white shark. The end.



I still haven't figured it all out, many more characters to discover.


Above: Personalities gathered together by Raphael.
1-Plato, 2-Aristotle, 3-Socrates, 4-Xenophon, 5-Æschines, 6-Alcibiades, 7-Zeno, 8-Epicurus, 9-Federico Gonzaga, 10-Averroes, 11-Pyhthagoras, 12-Francesco Maria Della rovere, 13-Heraclietus, 14-Diogenes, 15-Archimedes, 16 Zoroaster, 17-Ptolemy, 18 Raphael’s self-portrait.


I hope you enjoyed this analysis. Let me know if you find anything else or have some interesting insights.

Orrr it could be because the song IS about "Triangles are my favorite shape"
There are so many triangles in this music video
dreadful music btw.. not MY taste

I'd usually be face-palming and rolling my eyes when members analyse the symbolism in promo videos. Not here though...

I can honestly say I'm impressed with your work here and the effort you've put in to presenting a cool thread. Many could take your example to improve their own OPs.

It's interesting how the director and band have come together and plundered Art and philosophy in a way that's clear and unusual...thoughtful stuff. They've got all the eye-candy in there and raised the game into something visually more meaningful.

I guess the Cunninlynguists and KRS-1 are sort of similar in relation to using archetypes. Still, I'll have to stick their album on my phone and give them a listen.

Originally posted by Spacespider
Orrr it could be because the song IS about "Triangles are my favorite shape"
There are so many triangles in this music video
dreadful music btw.. not MY taste

I don't mean to be rude but that is a rather simplistic interpretation of a very intricate philosophical context and rich esoteric symbolism. Go beyond the triangle.

Originally posted by Kandinsky
I'd usually be face-palming and rolling my eyes when members analyse the symbolism in promo videos. Not here though...

I can honestly say I'm impressed with your work here and the effort you've put in to presenting a cool thread. Many could take your example to improve their own OPs.

It's interesting how the director and band have come together and plundered Art and philosophy in a way that's clear and unusual...thoughtful stuff. They've got all the eye-candy in there and raised the game into something visually more meaningful.

I guess the Cunninlynguists and KRS-1 are sort of similar in relation to using archetypes. Still, I'll have to stick their album on my phone and give them a listen.

Thank you for your kind comment. I wish someone with more expertise would correct me in any of the assumptions I have made about the symbology in this video, sometimes I feel very clever in finding details but very ignorant when it comes to seeing "The big picture".

My first impression was that...

Tessellate" is a twist on Italian Renaissance painter Raphael's 'The School of Athens', set in a modern day gangster's paradise.

as it says below the video.

I feel like I'm reading an article right out of Vigilant Citizen.

But what I've never understood is, how do these symbols effect the sub-conscious? That's why the symbols are in quite a few music videos right? How does the all-seeing eye, the pyramid and some satanic symbols effect the mind? If you flash these images over and over again to someone, does the sub-conscious pick it up without alerting the person? Even then, how do these symbols effect the person later? Is it a way to let the person accept the symbols without even understanding what they mean?


I've read some VC articles on the music industry and I could never really understand what general message these secret society's want to send.

and i though Jay Z was putting a lot of obvious symbolism in his videos



but this Alt J keyboard touch group takes the cake

the blurring of the face is interesting
the picture with the lady whoreshiping the tire show something dark beside the mouth
maybe it was a tongue to explicit gesture ?

or maybe the slip of their reptilian "Y" tongues
would be a bit to much to show in their music video?

reply to post by lupodigubbio


Star for the work, but i think this is just an interpretation of the artists. The blurring of faces could be due to the performers not signing off on privacy policy or something.

Interesting music to