Call it a homage, but yes, it is a fabrication.
A while ago I noticed a similarity between "Hello" by Martin Solveig & Dragonette and the instrumental "Incubation" by Joy Division. I do a bit of recording myself and one night was lacking inspiration so decided to play with those tracks. I tried singing the lyrics of the former over the latter, but couldn't make it work, the words are a bit too fragmented. But as I'd got everything set up I wondered what else might fit, ideally something that carried the same existential weight as Joy Division lyrics. Obvious really, "Friday" by Rebecca Black.
I'm no singer but my voice has quite a low resonance and as it happens I grew up about 20 miles from Ian Curtis. Unless you're from that part of the world you'd probably think our accents were similar. By the third take I'd got something near enough - rough being desirable. I tweaked the eq. and added some claustrophobic reverb to get closer. Next I played everything back, distorting through a pair of guitar amps (with a hint of mic feedback), recording the result. Finally I mixed everything through a small hall-sized reverb.
Almost immediately after looking on YouTube I found something ideal for the visuals : a documentary about Hulme Crescents 1978. With minimal editing using the open source LiVES system (and adding a Web Beeps ident), I had what you now see.
Speaking of Open Source, if you like that and like videos, you might like something I put together recently: Can I Hack It?
Danny Ayers 1st April, 2012