Splinters

As a postscript to our ninth album Transmission, we released a second remix EP in October 2013 entitled Intermission, which included one previously unreleased track, Splinters.



Splinters was initially written by Simon, starting almost exactly a decade ago. It took three years to transition from "idea" to "demo", and even longer to finally appear on a release, as it took a very long time for us to find the right sound. Despite that, it's one of the early Transmission-era tracks which helped to define the sound of the album.

The lyrics come from a frustration about party politics, particularly Tony Blair and his cronies.

The lyrics:

You pierce my skin with your splinters
You freeze my spring back to winter
You turn my world on its side
And switch my day into night

And there’s no one but you who can take the blame

You wage acts of war and you expect me to talk
You redefine the crime as you lay down the law
We’ve suffered your arrogance so many times
And now you go asking us to toe the line
Splintered words

Your words etched deep on my conscience
A stream of venomous nonsense
You spit and you twist with your lies
And you’re the thorn in our sides

And there you go, you spew more rot and hatred

You wage acts of war and you expect me to talk
You redefine the crime as you lay down the law
We’ve suffered your arrogance so many times
And now you go asking us to toe the line
Splintered souls
And there’s no one without their head in shame

You wage acts of war and you expect me to talk
You redefine the crime as you lay down the law
We’ve suffered your arrogance so many times
And now you go asking us to toe the line
Splintered minds

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

Centuries Later

The final single from our ninth album Transmission was Blood, Sweat and Tears, released in March 2013. It included just one new b-side, Centuries Later.



In retrospect I think we got a couple of things wrong with the Blood, Sweat and Tears single. At the time we weren't entirely planning to finish things off with Intermission, so we thought this might be the last single from the album - otherwise we might have put the Golden Wheel remix on the EP, where it would have been a more natural fit. And we only had one b-side ready at the time, and unfortunately I'm not sure Centuries Later is the best song we've ever written.

It's pretty old actually - the earliest demos date back to early 2005, which is why the lyrics have a slightly more preachy Empires / Dusk feel - and the chord sequence is borrowed from House of Cards, but played backwards. Over eight years it underwent numerous rewrites and lost the raw octave bassline with which it had started life, and finally it turned up as the only b-side on the fourth Transmission single in 2013.

The lyrics:

We should be proud of what we’ve achieved
We’ve satisfied our every need
As time goes by, we always attack
Blow up the past and never look back

Many years of progress
But look at what we've done

Centuries later, still nothing has changed
Our progress is driven by our own decay
Centuries later, the same people reign
So many lives wasted, building our remains

Look at the past, and see what has been
We're driven by our anger and greed
Should we be proud with so many dead
Or look behind for each step ahead?

Many ways to repress
We chose the loaded gun

Centuries later, still nothing has changed
Our progress is driven by our own decay
Centuries later, the same people reign
So many lives wasted, building our remains

Many roads to success
And still we stumble on

Centuries later, still nothing has changed
Our progress is driven by our own decay
Centuries later, the same people reign
So many lives wasted, building our remains

Centuries later, still nothing has changed
Our progress is driven by our own decay
Centuries later, the same people reign
So many lives wasted, building our remains

(R. Martin / S. Martin)