If you've always wondered what would happen during a battle between electronic pioneers Giorgio Moroder, Wendy Carlos and Vangelis at the end of the world, you're in luck. In Adult Swim's latest parody video, Live at the Necropolis: Lords of the Synth, the three legendary producers compete for synthesizer dominance and wind up uniting forces to save the world.
Moroder, Carlos and Vangelis are represented in the satirical video by characters named Morgio Zoroger, Carla Wendos and Xangelix, respectively. Moroder is perhaps the most recognizable of the three veteran musicians thanks to dropping Deja Vu last year and booking some tour dates this year, but Carlos and Vangelis are both behind countless film scores and are still kicking it into their twilight years.
Each character hilariously accentuates the myriad idiosyncrasies of their namesake throughout: Zoroger, for example, sips on test tube drinks still in the experimental stage, never removes his sunglasses and has various disco ball accessories on hand. Meanwhile, Xangelix is characterized as a recluse and Wendos is lauded for her gender fluidity.
Their task is to score the "dance" of Halley's Comet as it nears closer to the earth than ever before. The stakes are set pretty high even before cosmic complications lead the comet to get a bit too close to the crowd at the Necropolis. The winner earns the title of Lord of the Synth whereas the losers face being banned from music for 100 years.
Even the announcers in the spoof are a delightful parody: Edgar Tangram is a Polyharmonics Expert, Zedd Centuari is an Octave Collector and Ulf Jobin is a Professor of MIDIology. Characters like Zorro, former US president Gerald Ford, Captain Correlli (with his mandolin in hand), Panos the Wonder Child and a Pulsating Ball of Pure Energy are among the star-studded crowd.
The short mockumentary has an old school late-night TV infomercial vibe, complete with VHS-like tracking and on-screen credits thanking fictional sponsors. Even the descriptive caption plays along, declaring the video a "recently-unearthed concert from 1986."
Live at the Necropolis follows in the tradition of earlier Adult Swim one-offs like Too Many Cooks and Unedited Footage of a Bear, Stereogum points out. The special first aired at 4AM -- as is the case with much of the network's zaniest material -- and is now available to stream on YouTube. Watch it below.
