Released on:
Alice in Ultraland
Runtime: 5:45
By far the weirdest track on Alice in Ultraland. The flute intro suggests an Indian sounding piece, before things move into piano and sax territory. Jazz time? No, Gaz is lying on the floor, with the clouds spinning drunken, caterwauling across the sky. The most overtly ‘psychedelic’ sounding song on the album, he sings a lot of enjoyably gobbledegook to a truly off-kilter melody that seems to be permanently descending. Then it’s back to the jazz, with sax, double bass and very lo-fi drums. As this section comes to a close, Gaz appears to be evilly cackling in the background. I’ve always loved this one because of how utterly bonkers it is. After a second sax section, what sounds like an entire rock band is fed through the machines and filtered and looped over the top of the drums, with guitar textures, hammond organ swells, flutes, orchestral samples, distortion and feedback, and layers of synths adding to the maddening crescendo, eventually fading into an ambient soundbed developed from the same instrumentation. A hugely creative and original song. Gaz’s vocals, almost completely dry and up-front in the mix, have become a point of contention with fans, many strongly disliking them.
Credits
Written by Cobains/Dougans.
Produced by The Future Sound of London.
Engineered by Stone Freshwaters and One Man Band of Cosmos.
Cobain/Dougans: Words/sounds/vocals/guitars/synths/FX twists/SoundPROK.
Mikey Rowe: Glockenspiel, piano, rhodes.
Stu Rowe: Electric guitar.
Ben Owen: Saxophone, flute.
Tim Weller: drums.
Fractional Difference 