Track By Track: The Physics House Band on Mercury Fountain

Möbius Strip

Mercury Fountain is about a hallucinogenic journey through the mind, parallel universes, and the astral plane, using the allegory of diving into a Mercury Fountain. The first half focuses on exploring different realms, scenes, and situations - gaining knowledge and understanding as you go. "Möbius Strip" is the trepidation and wonder at staring down at the still fountain pool, before diving below the surface.

Calypso

It represents the joy, wonder, and excitement of discovering new places. Spectral figures, kaleidoscope lights, and polygonal shapes dance in an ever rotating display of perfect symmetry and complete randomness. Translucent glass forms diamond structures, then breaks up into single piercing beams of light.

We recorded the main synth lines on "Calypso" by running a midi signal into three synthesizers (MS20, Moog Sub37, Prophet) simultaneously, and gently blending between each.

Holy Caves

This is the comedown, and exploration into a mysterious and cavernous expanse. Shadows echo against the walls, thrown by faint phosphorescence from no visible source. There is a meditational quality to the piece - the feeling of entering a sacred place, disturbing ancient spirits, and feeling an air thick with spectral energy. This piece of music actually began as a much faster paced jam in the middle of an as-yet-unreleased track, that we used to play a couple of years ago. As part of our set at the time, we would reprise it as a slow jam to lead into "Surrogate Head" - this was the first bit of experimentation with revisiting musical themes within a larger body of work.

Surrogate Head

An explosion of anxiety, anger, and the fear at meeting the dark reflections of the inner self. The name refers to the loss of control of a situation, whereupon deep rooted safeguarding mechanisms from the subconscious work to shield the ego from any perceived harm. A Surrogate Head to replace your own.

This track began life as a one-riff jam - which you can see on live video at Arctangent - and parts were slowly added and adjusted until it ended up in its current form. The organ at the end of the track is the most 'classic rock' thing we've ever done.

A Thousand Small Spaces

An exhalation; a gentle rising through a shifting crystalline honeycomb of incandescent light, remembering - and moving towards - the world above the surface of the pool. This is the mid-point of the journey, a momentary peace between the intense deep dives of the first and second half, with a feeling of slowly waking up from a deep sleep.

Obidant

This is the moment of turning back, and diving further then ever before, plumbing the depths, dangers, and violence of the subconscious. The rhythms are all over the place, it's at breakneck speed, and the violin solo (courtesy of Raven Bush) mixed with the drum freakout is probably the craziest thing we've ever written. It's the first track of the four-movement journey that spans the second half of the record. The name was taken from the title of a fictional book, written by equally fictional author Philip Lewis Friedman, from Alex Ross Perry's film Listen Up Philip. The word has a very dark, blunt, and stark feel to it, and as far as I have read, is completely meaningless, so it felt like a perfect choice of title.

Impolex

This is a propulsion into the maelstrom, colours and lights speeding past at breakneck speed as the event horizon is crossed. Images, memories, fantasies, and fears project themselves against the endlessly surrounding tunnel, each flashing past, to be instantly replaced with the next; a constantly transforming visage of the past, present, and future.

The Astral Wave

This is the motionless peace in the silent, empty centre of the universe. The slow appearance of brilliant hues and inconceivable shapes swell into an infinite wave of pure light, extending across the void before crashing against the shore of an impossibly expansive silver plane.

Möbius Strip II

This is the dissolving of the experiences, memories, emotions, and senses into an all-encompassing pure mercury, trepidation, and wonder at staring down at the fountain pool, before diving below the surface. The circular narrative was partially influenced by The Incal by Alexandro Jodorowsky and Jean Giraud Möbius, and was developed in parallel to the writing and recording of the record - the musical and thematic strains interlinking and informing each other. There is no concrete 'story' attached to the record; no protagonist, fixed locations, prose or dialogue - rather, a set of ideas, images, and feelings that are conjured as a response to the sounds. It's also important to note that, this is just one interpretation of the record. Any listener may have a completely different set of ideas, based upon their own experiences, tastes and influences, and these are no more definitive and valid then theirs.