Without Life

The final track on Transmission is entitled Without Life.



Just before Christmas 2006, I decided to enter a short story competition, but the guidelines were very precise, and the deadline a little too short, so I wasn't able to get anything finished on time. The story wasn't really working anyway, but it had some nice ideas, so I decided to try it out as a song instead.

The music was originally an experiment using only soft synths in Ableton Live, although it was completely re-recorded for the album. I'd decided it might make a nice last track, but Simon wasn't sure about the ending, so I suggested we should add a new false ending. In the end, it turned out to be a rather melancholic coda, which closes the album rather nicely in my opinion.

The lyrics:

Without life, we are nothing
No sounds of silence, no view of blackness
No words to say what we should
Oh, we are nothing when we’re without life

In the pulse of the instant, you breathe life again
In the arrogant moment, you’re free
When the time is right, you will become something new
There is still life, together as one

Without life, we’re revolving
Sight without seeing, sound without hearing
We are blind to what floats by us
Oh, we are nothing when we’re without life

In the pulse of the instant, you breathe life again
In the arrogant moment, you’re free
When the time is right, you will become something new
There is still life, together as one

Without life, there is nothing
No sense of feeling, no words or breathing
We’re just fools, drifting slowly
Oh, we are nothing when we’re without love

In the pulse of the instant, you breathe life again
In the arrogant moment, you’re free
When the time is right, you will become something new
There is still life, together as one

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

I'll Give You Electro

Our attempt at a catchy piece of meaningless pop came from an unlikely source. The second single and eleventh track on Transmission was I'll Give You Electro.

I remember getting a very apologetic email from Simon containing the original demo of this, saying something along the lines of "This was just a bit of fun, and maybe it could be a b-side." Nonsense, I replied - it's brilliant.

It was actually originally based on a review we'd received for one of the tracks on Dusk, which was along the lines of, "You need some UK electro attitude, more kick and more bass." So we gave them electro.

We've never actually released a track that came out in as many different versions. In chronological order, we did a single version:



Then a retro 90s-themed version called the Imperfect Attitude Mix:



We actually started on the road towards retro mixes with the version called I'll Give You Retro, although we didn't finish that until quite a lot later. It might sound as though it's rather tongue in cheek, built entirely out of 80s clichés, such as handclaps, cowbells, FM synth sounds, and orchestral hits - but in a way it's a very sincere tribute to some of our favourite 80s dance records and remixes. Here it is:



Then there was an electro mix by Sappy, which is the secret bonus track on our remix EP Remission too. Don't tell anyone I said that, because it's a secret.

The lyrics:

You say that you want emotion
And you claim that you need attitude
You say that you want devotion
But this is what we do

Why don’t you just listen for a while?
Is anybody listening any more?

Well I’ll give you electro
And you can stick it up your bass
Yeah I’ll give you electro
How do you like it in your face?

You say that you miss the feeling
And you cry that you’d like something more
You say that we lack direction
And our delivery’s poor

Why don’t you try listening for a while?
Does anybody listen any more?

Well I’ll give you electro
And you can stick it up your bass
Yeah I’ll give you electro
How do you like it in your face?

Why don’t you just listen for a while?
Is anybody listening any more?

Well I’ll give you electro
And you can stick it up your bass
Yeah I’ll give you electro
How do you like it in your face?

Well I’ll give you electro
We’ll see if you can get it out
Yeah I’ll give you electro
Who’s the one with feeling now?

I’ll give you something new, I’ll give you more

(R. Martin / S. Martin)