Released on:
My Kingdom
Runtime: 3:15
As someone who liked weirdness in their music, 12 year old me also had the capacity to be remarkably prude when it came to loudness. After the magnificent opening part, I immediately lost faith, wondering why they had to ruin it with this fast, noisy track. Thankfully that feeling didn’t last too long.
‘My Kingdom (Part 2)’ is effectively a “re-construct” by Leon Mar. Mar, the production alias of pleasingly reversibly-named Noel Ram, is best known for his drum & bass releases under the name Arcon 2, and he had a studio in the same block as Earthbeat. Brian and Garry were impressed with his music, especially the less straight-forward material he was beginning to develop at the time, and invited him to contribute to the single. The result: three minutes of clattering, fast-paced ever-changing drums, bizarre disembodied voices, squelching synths and bloody weird noises. It’s hard to hear any ‘My Kingdom’ in there, other than a very brief pause for the track’s lead synth sound at 1:54, although it’s possible the main vocal sample is a pitch-shifted version of the Hopkin vocal from the original. High-pitched chipmunk vocals at 1:40 add a sense of deranged lunacy. I always imagined a games arcade, late at night, music blaring out, drunk and high teenagers acting crazy.
Credits
Written by Dougans/Cobain.
Written by Dougans/Cobain/Morricone/Vangelis (vinyl label).
Produced by The Future Sound of London.
Engineered by Yage.
Recorded at Earthbeat Studios, London.
Drums – Leon Mar re-construct.
Fractional Difference 