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Date: Fri, 24 Oct 86 22:45:58 EDT
From:
FULIGIN%UMass.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU (Peter E. Lee)
Subject: New Kate: "Experiment
IV"
KATE BUSH bounces back into action this week with a new single for EMI and the promise of a compilation LP and video next month. The single is callled "Experiment IV" and is apparently about Kate's nightmare vision of a future where music usually a force for good, is harnessed by scientists as a weapon of destruction.
The single comes in seven and 12 inch versions backed by a remixed version of "Wuthering Heights" to which Kate has added a newly recorded vocal.
Wheee! New Kate! Now let's just hope it doesn't get blocked from US release by some nasty record company...
Space Antlers For Kate,
-Peter
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 86 13:28 PST
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: NEW KATE BUSH RECORD
STOP PRESS:
Kate's new single is called "Experiment IV", and will be included on her new compilation LP "The Whole Story". The LP is scheduled to be released on November 11 or 12 in England, and reportedly will include "hits and bits", whatever that means.
Speaking out of total ignorance, of course, IED seems to remember very vaguely the title "Experiment IV" before, perhaps in connection with some ghoulish Nazi era practices. Can anyone set him straight about this?
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 86 17:39 PST
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: Exp. IV
After considerable time wasted with the UC library computers, IED has given up searching for possible sources for Kate's latest subject, the use of sound as a weapon. If there was a real "Experiment IV", she'll have to give us more of a clue than the name. The Experiment that IED was associating with the Nazis was "Experiment E", altogether different. Somehow it seems unlikely that MM is accurately identifying the source as a futuristic idea of Kate's. IED still thinks the source is probably some movie or TV show in which the Experiment was carried out. Anybody got an idea?
The Whole Story will be a gatefold LP, with a black and white photo of Kate on the front cover, and color photos on the inside. The singles NOT included are: Hammer Horror, December Will Be Magic Again, There Goes a Tenner, Suspended in Gaffa (not a UK release to begin with), and the Big Sky (too recently released, IED supposes). All other UK single a-sides are included. No clue what NME had in mind when referring to "hits and bits".
Date: Fri, 07 Nov 86 11:40 PST
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: Exp. IV Reviews
All of the British music weeklies have now reviewed "Experiment IV" -- and ALL of the reviews are positive. This is Kate's lucky year -- lucky, indeed, since the opinions of the UK critics have never had the least connection with the quality of the music they review.
> "Experiment IV" is the greatest single piece of music in the history of the known universe.
The above statement has been revised, to read as follows:
"'Experiment IV' is the greatest single natural phenomenon in the history of the universe."
Date: Sun, 9 Nov 86 00:47:28 EST
From:
drukman%UMass.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU (Jonathan S. Drukman)
Subject: Exp.
IV
...
I was going to say how Kate Bush's "Experiment IV" sounds a bit calculated, but I've got a weak spot for Kate, and I love the lyrics, so even if it is a bit 'mersh, I'll still listen to it.
-jon drukman
[Drukman's first posting]
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 86 00:08 EST
From: Mark Katsouros <KATSOURO@UMDD>
Subject: E x p e r i m e n t I V
> "'Experiment IV' is the greatest single natural phenomenon in the history of the universe."
Having read this, I slowly lowered the needle onto my new 12". What I heard was beyond description. GO OUT AND GET EXPERIMENT IV! Andy just may have been right with this one. It is absolutely incredible. I only had time to listen to it a couple of times last night and this morning, but I found myself humming the damn thing (in my head, anyway) all day long, today. The 12" also comes with a new vocal of "Wuthering Heights", and, I guess since it's so close to "The Season" already, "December Will Be Magic Again", which Kate first put out in 1980 on a 7". In other words, you get three *great* songs!
I don't know how many versions of "Wuthering Heights" I now have (counting bootlegs), but I know I could never get sick of it. And for those of you who have never heard "December Will Be Magic Again", it's really a *very* pretty song. Speaking of pretty, John Carder's photography is getting better and better too. I don't know if it's the unlimited studio time, or what, but "Experiment IV" is one smooth song. Kate has continued to amaze me.
"We were working secretly for the Military
Our experiment in
sound was nearly ready to begin
We only know in theory what we are doing
Music made for pleasure, music made to thrill
It was music we were
making here until....
They told us all they wanted was a sound that could
Kill someone from
a distance
So we go ahead and the meters are over in the red
It's a
mistake in the making
From the painful cries of mothers to the terrifying scream
We
recorded it and put it in to our machine....
It could feel like falling
in love, it could feel so bad
But it could feel so good. It could sing you
to sleep-
But that dream is your enemy
We won't be there to be blamed
We won't be there to snitch. I just
pray
That someone there can hit the switch
And the public are
warned to stay off...."
Date: Sat, 15 Nov 86 01:17 PST
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: Exp. IV
"Experiment IV" is the greatest entity in the history of existence.
-- Andrew Marvick
Date: Sat, 15 Nov 86 20:34 PST
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: Exp. IV
"Experiment IV" is the universe.
Date: Sat, 15 Nov 86 23:16:53 CST
From: hogge@p.cs.uiuc.edu (John
Hogge)
Subject: Exp. IV
> "Experiment IV" is the greatest entity in the history of existence.
> -- Andrew Marvick
HOW DARE we talk about this song! It is too godlike, too perfect to be expressed in English. In fact, it is too good to even think about. I suggest the next person that dares think about this song be shot on site.
Uh, say...what were we talking about?
-John
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 86 11:41:30 EST
From: nessus (Doug Alan)
Subject: X4 reviews
For those who haven't yet heard X4 (I just managed to get a copy a couple days ago -- these new import bans are horrible!), it is quite a nice song. It's not as Andy maintains the greatest natural phenomenon in the history of the universe, because that's "Get Out Of My House".
I read a couple of reviews for "Experiment IV". The review in the NME said that even when Kate Bush fails, she still manages to give the impression that she's better than just a pop star and that this song sounds like Kate Bush has joined Bananarama. The review in Sounds said that Kate Bush manages to say in one song what a typical science fiction writer would take a trilogy to say. If the reviewer is talking about the Piers Anthonies of the world, this is not too surprising, since Kate spends as much time on one song as Piers Anthony spends on a trilogy.
I'm not so sure about this Bananara bit (Hey, I like "Cruel Summer" as much as the next guy, but...). What I think the reviewer means is that the melody in "Experiment IV" is very catchy. For me, this is by far Kate's catchiest melody. The song is very highly textured, however, though, so it doesn't come across to me as being exceedingly commercial. There are also some extremely neat sounds in the song.
The 12-inch single version is better than the normal version. It sort of sounds like Kate meets Klaus Schulze and Windam Hill (and Bananarama?). There is a nice and moody violin on the 12-inch that isn't on the normal mix.
I'm told that the video is really intense. Part of it involves Kate turning into a demon. Apparently the BBC won't allow part of it to be broadcast though. They say it isn't suitable for children. (Dicks!)
"From the painful cries of mothers to the terrifying screams We recorded it and put it in to our machines"
From: Neil Calton <nbc@vd.rl.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 23 Dec 86
09:56:14 GMT
Subject: Exp. IV, the film
Well, friday afternoon I type in a message saying I had not seen the 'Experiment IV' film, then I go home switch on the TV and what do I see but 'Experiment IV' on 'The Tube' - there must be a higher force after all!
Anyway, the video was directed by Kate herself and features two well-known character actors Peter Vaughan and Richard Vernon, plus two of the new wave of British comedians: Dawn French (from the Comic Strip) and Hugh Laurie (Saturday Live).
Assuming its not been shown in the US yet, the scenario is as follows: (obvious *** SPOILER *** for those who wish to be surprised by their first viewing).
An old man (Vernon) enters a small shop called 'Music for Pleasure' which leads into a secret research lab. where he is met by a white-coated scientist (French) and taken to a small room filled with sound equipment controlled by another scientist (Laurie). They then go to see a military officer (Vernon) who shows them a file marked 'For the attention of Prof. Jerry Coe' and asks for 'a sound that can kill'.
The Prof. is visibly upset but proceeds to record various sounds which are then played back to a man strapped up in a chair with electrodes all over him. The sounds cause a ghostly apparition of a girl with long blonde hair (Kate) to be generated, who floats around the guy before transmogrifying into a nightmarish ghoul-like spectre. At this, the Prof. attempts to switch off the machine but the creature breaks out causing everyone to drop down dead (through fear, insanity ?). The military man is then seen being brought tea by a uniformed woman (Kate) who also transmutes into the creature - with the resulting demise of said officer. The film closes with the scene around the music shop being cordoned off and 'prohibited' signs being errected by a military man in a van. As the van drives off it stops to pick up a girl hitch-hiking (Kate) who turns to camera, winks and puts her finger to her mouth - still frame closes.
I enjoyed the film immensely and having taped it have viewed it several times. The special effects are good but not over-done and the 'creature' is a truly gruesome thing. The film conveys the insidious way in which innocent research can be corrupted by malicious government/military officials and the fact that we may be tampering with things we cannot control. The songs message comes across well in the video and the overall effect is quite disturbing. Yet the final shot leaves just a hint that Kate is also paying an acknowledgement to such films as 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. In addition, Kate seems to be suggesting that she/the creature will only be wreaking havoc on those who create evil and not on the innocent i.e. us - her audience, since she is taking us into her confidence with the wink and the shush gesture.
The fact that the Prof. is called Jerry Coe would seem an obvious pun on Jericho - whose walls came tumbling down at the sound of trumpets (if I have got my biblical facts right) - or does anyone know of a real Jerry Coe?
Date: Tue, 23 Dec 86 21:26 PST
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: Exp. IV, sources
Thanks once again, Neil. You're providing an invaluable service to Kate fans in the Western hemisphere. This film sounds like the best one Kate has done so far.
In the latest issue of Homeground, one of the fans who played a dead body in the "X4" film made reference to two or three sources for the subject of the song and the film. (He didn't say where he'd heard of these sources, but pretty clearly he'd learned of them from Kate during the filming.) One was a nightmare Kate herself had had. Another was a true story of a French scientist working with sonics who created a huge steam whistle, which actually did kill several people, including himself. Then there was either a movie or a television show which involved the same idea, and the name Professor Jericho was used in that. IED will go home and check the article to get these facts straighter for a future posting, but this may help to clear up your question about the name. Of course, your association of Jericho with the trumpet and the tumbling walls is completely correct, Neil.
Also, the writer claims, experiments in sonic weaponry are being conducted even as we speak by both superpowers...
-- Andrew Marvick
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 86 20:58 PST
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: X4, sources
Just to update those interested about the sources for "Experiment IV", here is the relevant passage from Homeground No. 25, written by Peter Fitzgerald-Morris:
"'Experiment IV' originated in a story that Kate heard about a scientist in France who built a giant steam powered whistle to assess the effects of the sound. The effect was simple -- it killed him and a number of people in the surrounding area. That area had to be cordoned off and the public kept out until the device powering the whistle ran out of fuel.
The next happening was a nightmare, where scientists engaged in benign research into the effects of sound had their work perverted by the military, who wanted a sound that would kill.
This concept is, however, no fantasy. The 'sound cannon' has been chased by defense establishments across the world. A European version of the idea was indeed known as the 'Jericho Trumpet', after the Old Testament prophet's exploits with the walls of the celebrated city. There is current research both in the US and in the USSR on sonic waves and disturbance patterns to destroy property and kill people."
Date: Wed, 07 Jan 87 10:09 PST
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: X4, the film
"'Experiment IV'-- The Movie" appeared last night on the USA's still omnipotent cable video channel for the first time. It was, however, apparently edited, although most of the film had been left intact. Several interesting facts about "X4".
First, the body which has elsewhere been referred to as "steaming", and which has been described as appearing somewhere near the end of the original version -- thus precipitating considerable argument within the interior ranks of the British television industry -- is nowhere to be seen in the American corporation's reproduction. This would appear to indicate, Watson, that some editing -- probably unauthorized by the artist herself -- was undertaken prior to the screening of the film in America; and certainly the synchronization of the music with the imagery at the conclusion of the altered film creates a singular effect -- one scarcely warranted under the present circumstances, given the implication of the song's subject and theme.
Second, Watson -- and here, unless I is very much mistaken, you will recognize the agency of a new and particularly fearsome and pestilential evil -- Kate has changed the music (much as she did in "Cloudbusting") in order to meet the exigencies of her filmic vision! On this occasion, Watson, she has introduced into the midst of the song an instrumental episode which prominently features the very same VIOLIN passage around which much of the TWELVE-INCH mix revolves. And yet, though it's I who say(s) it, so subtly has Kate altered this passage -- so slyly and cunningly has she merged this snippet of transcendent violinistry with the rhythmic basis of the original single mix -- that it constitutes, in sum, no mere augmentation, but, in truth, a positive and laudible improvement over the song in its first stage of genesis.
Also, the very end of the film, wherein Kate's character boards the van and smiles conspiratorially at the camera, was omitted by MTV.
-- Andrew Marvick
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 87 13:15 PST
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu
Subject: the violin passage
One remarkable thing about the violin solo (quite apart from the mere rarity of a real violin -- as opposed to typically foolish hick fiddling) is that the music is NOT "weepy" at all; the root of the melody is modal, not tonal, and completely unrelated to usual formulae; in this sense (as said before) it is similar to "The Lark Ascending" by Vaughn-Williams, which also derives much of its melodic and harmonic content from ancient native (usually Celtic) sources. Another exceptional thing about this violin line is the fact that Kate has incorporated it seamlessly into the SEVEN-inch version -- and, especially, into the video re-mix -- despite its apparently unrelated mood. The mystery therefore arises whether the violin passage was conceived first, or built up after the rest of the track had already taken shape. NO-ONE else in pop music has been able to turn one recording in such radically different expressive directions AT THE SAME TIME. There are at least five unprecedented touches of production in "X4". How many innovations are required before you deem something "dynamic", anyway?
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 87 13:53:18 EST
From:
drukman%UMASS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu(Jonathan S. Drukman)
Subject:
Backwards Messages
Bravo, IED, for your summation of the backwards Kate-Stuff. As a corollary, could you summarize any other "hidden" messages?
The secret line from "Experiment IV" is an example. Does it sound to you as if she's switching channels every fraction of a second on that one? It does to me, and in fact, the message can be heard much clearer if one switches one's audio equipment into "mono".
-- Jon Drukman
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 87 16:13 PST
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu
Subject: mystery track
About the "X4" mystery track, I'm still not sure how that passage has been "phased". I think you're right that there's been some left-to-right channel-switching, but there's more to it than that, namely (I think) some weird "sss" sounds here and there, that don't seem to be related to the main spoken message. Do you have the same sentence that I hear? Mine is: "I bet my mum's gonna give me a little toy."
Any questions, give me a ring at (213) 474-5208. My address is: 10499 Wilkins Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024.
Take care.
-- Andy
Date: Fri, 20 Mar 87 10:22:50 EST
From:
drukman%UMASS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu(Jonathan S. Drukman)
Subject:
Experiment IV Message
To Andrew Marvick:
After an hour of messing around with cassette snippets of the "secret" message in Experiment IV, from both the 7" and 12" versions, I have not only thoroughly messed up my mind, but reached some conclusions. It sounds as if someone (or some electronic device) is twiddling the signal between left and right channels. I'm not quite sure what you mean by the "sss" sounds, unless you are referring to the background noises, which I was not concentrating on.
The message could very well be "I bet my mum's gonna give me a little toy" - what I mean by that is, it may or may not be, but I have no better ideas, and since I have your interpretation in mind, it colors my judgement when I listen to the track. You're probably right, although I noticed on the 12" version, the word "toy" sounds more like "tie" and tends to speed up and vanish into the mix a lot faster than it does on the 7" version.
--Jon Drukman
Date: Tue, 24 Mar 87 11:17 PST
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu
Subject: mystery track
Thanks to Joe and Jon for their fascinating ideas re interpreting backwards tracks/lyrics to KT. This is what the essence of L-Hs is all about!
Jon Drukman
Well, first of all, the "X4" message is apparently only forwards (not that you said otherwise). Kate seems to have treated the spoken section in just about the same way she treated the "scatter-voice" (IED's term, for want of a better one) from "Waking the Witch": i.e., she shifted it very rapidly from left to right channels. However, it doesn't sound as though that's all that she did with it. First, there's a lot of echo on the voice in both sections; second, the voice doesn't really "travel" from left to right and back, but "jumps" there, using a cut-out of some kind. And third, there seem to be other noises, especially in the "X4" passage: IED suggested that they sounded like 's' sounds, but that doesn't make sense.
Nevertheless, even when listened to in mono, there is still some noise to be heard in addition to the spoken line and the instrumental music. As for the slight difference you noticed in the twelve-inch's mix of the message, IED noticed exactly the same distortion of the last word, and assumed it had to do with the mix only, or the way it was taken out of one mix and spliced, so to speak, into the other; but since he really isn't certain that the message is what he said it was anyway, he remains open to suggestions. The whole tone of the twelve-inch mix of the message seems different, doesn't it?
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 87 21:23:00 PST
From: ganzer%trout@nosc.mil (Mark T.
Ganzer)
Subject: X4 Hidden Message (solution?)
Just spent the last hour listening to the hidden track in X4 at various speeds and have come to some conclusions. I have whittled down the number of syllables to nine (the phrase is said slowly with much echoing). The best transcription I can get is "I get blasts from too many instruments" although the "blasts" could be "laughs"...
Oh, to rest my aching ears before trying WYWM backwards...
"... a sound that could kill someone from a distance"
MarK T. (and it nearly did) Ganzer
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 87 16:37:45 EDT
From: evs@dukecdu.mc.duke.edu (Ed
Simpson)
Subject: X4, mystery message
Regarding Experiment IV:
I listened to it for another hour and I couldn't hear anything about a "symphony" or anything about a "little toy" in the section between "It could sing you to sleep" and "But that dream is your enemy". Bearing IED's suggestion in mind it is possible to hear "I bet my mum's..." but I wasn't completely convinced.
On the 12" mix it sounds like she's saying:
"... experiment ... prove it to me."
Then it sounds like John Carder Bush saying something like:
"It's time for" or perhaps "... five" then
"experiment four, experiment four, experiment four, experiment four, experiment four."
Then there is the part with the broken up voice (this comes after "But that dream is your enemy") where Kate is singing a high pitched "eee eee eee eee" on one side of the headphones (sounds sort of like the sound track of "Psycho" during the famous shower scene). There is also a broken up voice in the center and on the other side which seems to be mixed with another voice. I can't tell what either voice is saying but it sounds like one of them finishes with the word "like" at the end of each of the two measures that this sequence spans. Anybody have any ideas?
Date: Wed, 6 May 87 22:10:59 PDT
From: ganzer%trout@nosc.mil (Mark T.
Ganzer)
Subject: X4, mystery message
After the diversion caused by BKtmM, I am back to trying to figure out the hidden message in X4 (if anyone still gives a shit about that). I have become quite convinced that this phrase and the "Five, Experiment 4, Experiment 4" heard later in the 12" version are meant to be comments being made by people running the experiment. However, my previous interpretation "I get blasts from too many instruments" appears to have been blown out of the water when I greatly reduced the playback speed (dropping the vocal app. 2 octaves) and started hearing 12 syllables (vs. 10 I previously heard). The phrase "...too many instruments" still sounds clear though. I think I'll give this up until it becomes a puzzle in the Kate Bush Club newsletter and start working on "Watching You Without Me"...
"I don't know why I build a mountain, every time And here I am wondering why I'm doing it again..."
MarK T. Ganzer
Date: Thu, 07 May 87 17:01 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu
Subject: Tricky lyriKs
And for "X4", "Five, Experiment Four..." sounds to IED like a kind of PA-system warning in the laboratory to IED. Sort of like "Hard hats, all workers!" or "Danger, Will Robinson!" But whether this is directly related to the "mystery message" or not is unclear.
As for the messages in "X4" and "WYWM" being boring -- you're kidding, right? BORING? Naww...never! Incidentally, IED has partially reconciled his hearing of the X4 message with yours: He now hears "I bet my mum's gonna give me a little toy instrument!"
-- Andrew "Happily Obsessive" Marvick
Date: Fri, 8 May 87 23:37:36 PDT
From: ganzer%trout@nosc.mil (Mark T.
Ganzer)
Subject: TricKy LyriKs and oTher messages
As for my signing off with the "I don't know why I build a mountain, every time..." it seemed appropriate as I had just spent the previous hour listening to that damn X4 message. As an engineer that spends considerable time in laboratory testing, this message and the subsequent passage "Five, Experiment 4" sound like the types of things that might be said during the running of the test. And I can't help but feel that this passage, and the WYWM passage relate to their respective story lines, just as the "We let the weirdness in" line related to "Leave It Open".
MarK T. Ganzer
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 87 01:27:27 PST
From: victoro@crash.cts.com (Dr.
Snuggles)
Subject: A Sound That Could Kill Someone
[Here are some more "Experiment IV" possiblities..]
[Taken from sci.electronics]
> Sheer rumors?
Bill Mayhew writes:
> While this isn't exactly electronic, the Germans in WW II experimented with a battlefield device which burned propane in a quarter wave stub. The energy released by the combustion process generated a lethal shockwave that vibrated the enemy to pieces. The weapon was not terribly useful due to its poor directionality.
Bell Labs and Western Electric conducted extensive research in the military applications of sound during the latter 1930's and during WW II. Some of this research is still classified.
One project which became rather public was called "Project Whistle". This work was begun in the late 1930's, and one of its efforts was to investigate the acoustics of sirens and develop devices which were more efficient. At the time, sirens were only 1 to 2 percent efficient with respect to acoustic energy versus total energy input.
While one compelling reason to develop powerful sirens was use as an air raid warning device, the other classified reason was for their use as a potential weapon. By 1941 a truly mamouth siren was constructed and mounted on a flatbed truck. It used a turbine air compressor powered by a 100 hp gasoline engine, along with another 20 hp engine to operate the rotor in the siren. This "siren" developed a frequency of 440 Hz which was - believe it or not - virtually a square wave.
Tests and acoustic measurements were "quietly" conducted at a remote area in New Jersey, until a public test was ready. In early 1942 the siren was parked on the Manhattan Bridge in NYC and tested. The siren was so loud that it produced something like 90 dB at TWO MILES. Now that's LOUD! 90 dB is at the begining threshhold of ear damage for prolonged exposure.
This siren was later mass-produced (on a small scale, though), and was called the "Chrysler-Bell Victory Siren".
Out of curiosity, do any Bell Labs people out in Netland know if any of these sirens still exist?
Date: Mon, 7 Aug 89 16:47:52 PDT
From: dhsu@SUN.COM (David Hsu)
Subject: X4 video
Greetings again, all. And special thanks to Tracy and Andrew for making the Santa Cruz bash such a success.
At long last I've started acquiring copies of the official videos on laserdisc for careful perusal. Those discs at the party, Corey, were Andrew's, not mine, and our gratitude should be rightfully be his.
At any rate, I present installment #1 of Dave's Excessively Trivial Observations On Kate's Video's.
Experiment IV
If you hadn't noticed, we never see the interior of the shop from the storefront. The store itself therefore would seem to be part of the set, and not the location.
Not only is the shopkeeper counting out his fresh copies of Kate's newest single, but a copy is already stuck to an interior pillar of the shop at the left.
Dr. Coe enters the shop at exactly 12 noon, according to the wall clock above the real entrance.
As we noted before, the officer has a folder labeled "The Whole Story" before him, and another labeled "Experiment V" facing Dr. Coe.
The microphones at the foot of the bed in the delivery room are not connected to anything yet.
Where do the flying papers come from when the device shatters the control booth window?
Dr. Coe must be left-handed; his watch is visible as he reaches for the main switch. It appears to read 5:20, which would be consistent with the Venetian-blind shadows throughout the rest of the video.
Boy, I can't wait to get ahold of the Single File.
yours for more pabulum,
-dave
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 89 02:21 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: X4, the film
OK, enough of that. Let IED bore his readers on some other Kate Bushological topics now.
First, let IED commend and thank Dave Hsu for taking the time to study the recent videos again and alert IED to a number of remarkable details of which he had been unaware.
Dave, you suggest that the interior Music For Pleasure shop scenes seem to have been done in a separate, interior, set. Perhaps so, but IED reminds Love-Hounds that the Newsletter reported that the shop was so realistic that several passersby "walked into the shop", thinking it was a real music shop. So whatever was there must have been pretty thorough.
Dave notes the presence of yet another X4 single-sleeve in the shop. Have all Love-Hounds noticed, as well, the dijeridu on the right-hand wall? Or the strumento da porco? The balalaika and two mandolins? The trombone? Kate's own Celtic harp and her Babooshka bass viol?
Dave, IED must conclude that the papers which fly through the cracked window in the Sonic Experiments room can only originate--from the monster's mouth! There's no other possible source, unless...unless... unless Kate made a...a...continuity error? Naaahhh...
Thanks again for your observations, Dave. Fascinating stuff.
Date: Sat, 23 Dec 89 23:09:45 -0500
From: Jon Drukman <jsd@GAFFA.MIT.EDU>
Subject: video observations
[Experiment IV:]
Also, what exactly is going on in the room next to the official's office when Kate enters to give the guy his coffee? It looks vaguely like some talking heads (!) and one of them might be wearing a hat kinda like the men in black were wearing in Cloudbusting... Could this be some between-video continuity here? Inquiring minds want to know!
From: chip@alpha.ces.cwru.edu (Ryan McGuire (for now))
Date: Sun, 24
Jun 90 03:10:01 GMT
Subject: Experiment IV secret message
I think I may have deciphered the backing vocal in Experiment IV just before the line "But that dream is your enemy" after listening to the five-second clip only about fifty times (I lost count after 34).
I believe the words are "I must thank you for listening to my tune."
There are so many overdubs with varying shifts and volumes that it's hard to tell right where the main line begins and what is a pre-echo.
There are still a couple points I'm not quite clear on:
1. There seems to be two sylables of the same volume before the first word in the above sentence. These could be
A) Two real sylables in the same track that add meaning to the sentence. If this is the case they may be, "I feel," yielding, "I feel I must thank you..."
B) Two 'warm-up' pre-repetitions of, "I", yileding, "I I I must..."
C) The beginnings of two tracks of the same sentence but with a negative time shift.
2. The word, "tune" doesn't quite sound right. There seems to be a ch sound between the t and the u, 'tchune'. Maybe this isn't even the the right word.
I found that having the 1K, 2K and 4K channels on the equalizer full-blast and all the rest all the way off gives the best voice-to-instrumentation ratio.
I'm going to give it a couple more runs tonight before I go to bed, but I just had to post these preliminary findings.
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 90 11:20 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: seKreT messages, KonTinued...
Ryan McGuire comes up with a very intriguing theory about the secret message in X4. IED for one has always heard a different sentence, but some of the sounds are very similar to those which Ryan hears. Where Ryan's goes:
I think I must thank you for listening to my tune,
IED hears:
I bet my mum's gonna buy me a little toy instrument.
Several of these syllables correspond closely with each other, though of course the meaning is entirely different. What we need is more people to have a go at deciphering the message. Any of you interested? It can be heard in X4, between the line "It could sing you to sleep" and "But that dream is your enemy". Have a go, please!
-- Andrew Marvick
Date: Fri, 29 Jun 90 03:57:16 EDT
From: nrc@cbema.att.com (Neal R
Caldwell, Ii)
Subject: Experiment IV secret message
Ryan McGuire does a fantastic job of attempting to decipher the secret message on Experiment IV. He proposes that the message between the line "It could sing you to sleep" and "But that dream is your enemy" might be...
I think I must thank you for listening to my tune,
while Andrew Marvick suggests...
I bet my mum's gonna buy me a little toy instrument.
Of these two I can hear Ryan's suggestion more clearly. I can hear what might be each word that he suggests. Of Andy's suggestion I can only make out the first four words.
From: halley!steve@cs.utexas.edu (Steve Williams)
Date: 1 Jul 90
08:01:25 GMT
Subject: Another shot at X4 mystery message
In a couple of recent submissions, Ryan McGuire and IED discuss their interpretations of a line of mystery text buried within Experiment IV.
Ryan hears: I think I must thank you for listening to my tune,
While IED hears: I bet my mum's gonna buy me a little toy instrument.
And I hear some variation on:
I've got my/mine muzzle(d) and they came in tune(d) to destruct/destroy.
Actually, I hear everything up to the word "tune" pretty clearly, at least on the CD copy, where it's easy to play tiny fragments over and over again very rapidly. It's less clear on vinyl, and even less clear on the vinyl extended version. (In that version, the line is still present, but easier to miss because the preceding cue line "It could sing you to sleep" is missing.) The vocal IS buried beneath multiple instrument tracks, but seems to be a single continuous vocal -- not chopped up, back-masked, pieced together or shifted about in any tricky manner. The difficulty comes from the phrasing (slightly odd) and mainly from the overlying instruments. For example, Ryan mentioned:
>2. The word, "tune" doesn't quite sound right. There seems to be a ch sound between the t and the u, 'tchune'. Maybe this isn't even the the right word.
I don't want to put words in Ryan's ears, but what I *think* he's hearing over the word "tune" is part of the rhythm track. There's a constant "tch-tch-tch-tch" throughout. That's the same reason I'm not sure about the d on the end of "tune(d)".
The last word is more of a guess. What I hear best is "destruct", pronounced "dee-struct". That's less grammatically correct than "destroy" might be, but not if the sentence is read as if "DESTRUCT" were a setting, not as part of the incorrect infinitive "to destruct". Really, it could be another word entirely.
To complicate things further, I think there's another buried line later in the song, and it's sounds impossible to make out.
Next opinion?...
Date: Tue, 3 Jul 90 20:03:08 EDT
From: woj@paladin.Owego.NY.US (my
favorite buildings)
Subject: seKreT message
ied called for more input on the seKreT message in experiment iv. so, after listening to the excerpt in question for about fifty times on my poor cassette deck (i haven't decided that it is worth it to shell out the $$$ for only one new song on cd), i must say that my ears hear something more akin to what ied hears, rather than ryan mcguire's sentence.
for a while, i felt that i was hearing something more like:
i bet my mug's gonna give me an implement
with the word implement looped an extra time at the end of the sentence, but about twenty listens later with the low-end frequencies boosted, i could discern the word separation into what *could* be the phrase that ied purports to hear ("...a little toy instrument"). i'm still not sure exactly what i'm hearing at that point, but i will concede that his phrase is quite possible. i'll also admit that ied's makes a bit more sense then what i originally heard, but one must remember that KaTe has probably masked the words so that phonetic sounds gets muffled - what i wrote is the *sounds* that i hear, rather then the words they might map to.
Date: Wed, 5 Jun 91 16:38 CDT
From: katefans@chinet.chi.il.us (Chris
Williams)
Subject: strange display in the film
Charles Boyer wondered:
> Seriously, though, it makes one wonder. She apparently likes computers, from all that I've read, and besides, anyone who has used a Fairlight synth as much as Kate has must love computers at least to a degree!
Well...in an interview Kate confessed that she had fallen behind the software revisions of the Fairlight, and that she wasn't computer-oriented enough to dive in learn all the new features. In the same interview she mentioned that the complexity of "Page R" (the Fairlight drum program) was one of the principle reasons that Del did most of the rhythm programming for the albums.
What I'd like to know is...has any U.K. Love-Hound figured out what machine Kate had on her desk in the "Wogan" Exp. IV ? The display looked a bit odd; one column of text scrolling up the right-hand side. It definitely wasn't a Fairlight display.
--------
Kate:
I don't really know why people think my songs are strange. Perhaps because I bath in goats milk!! It's not something you should really ask me. My Mum could probably help you more. It's probably something to do with my childhood.
Date: Sat, 17 Aug 1991 10:23:00 -0700
From:
gatech!chinet.chi.il.us!katefans@eddie (Chris'n'Vickie)
Subject: Madame
Maria Nanky
Jorn asks:
> 5) That mysterious Madame Maria Nanky, whose cover version of "Poor Old Flea" Kate favors, gets a thank-you in the HoL acknowledgements.
Pretty Good Authority (PGA) tells us that Madame Maria Nanky, Enrico Baratta, Reverand Normal and others are fictional characters invented quite a while ago by Kate and her brother Paddy. Sharp-eyed viewers might be able to spot Mr. Baratta in the Experiment IV video as the silhouette visible through the window of the Major's (?) office as Kate/Monster brings in the tea.
Chris Williams
Date: Mon, 16 May 94 15:45:47 EDT
From: KonvenTion_Fan <vickie@pilot.njin.net>
Subject: Videos at the Convention
Scott Telford writes:
> Yes, I noticed the different ending to RutH when I saw TLTCTC at the Edinburgh UCI last Tuesday.
> Also, I think the Experiment IV video was also slightly different around the point where the "sound siren" turns into the "sound demon".
Now that you mention it, I remember doing a double-take at that point, but I couldn't think then, or now, what exactly was different about it. We had thought about going again on Monday, the last night it played, but we got caught up in something else. Mark Semich went Monday, and said that there were only 4 people in the audience that showing.
> Although all the promo videos (but not TLTCTC) were film transfers of video, they looked much better than on VHS tape - first time I noticed the Experiment IV singles on the counter inside the Music for Pleasure shop!
We were looking forward to seeing the videos (well, especially Cloudbusting) on film, but we're not complaining. I'd seen the singles in X4 before, but it's true that they were especially visible on the big screen. We also noticed PDFM walking down the hall for the first time. Yikes! How could we have missed that?? There's so much to said about seeing certain things in the theater if a person has the chance. I'm glad we had the chance.
From: Jeff Marold <jmarold@netlink.cts.COM>
Date: Mon, 01 Feb 93
20:52:22 PST
Subject: EXPERIMENT IV - LYRICS?
I hope there is answer to this, the QUINTESSENTIAL Kate Bush question - in Experiment IV the lyric says "so they told us that they wanted a noise that would kill someone form a distance, so ............. ???
I listened to the song ten thousand times and still cant figure it out. HELP!
PS. I remember hearing an eight minute or so version of the same song buy never found it in record stores . IDEAS?
From: GRAHAM.G.R.DOMBKINS@BHPMELMSM.BHP.bhpmel04.telememo.au
Date:
Feb. 1993
Subject: RE: EXPERIMENT IV - LYRICS?????
Hmmm, off the top of my head I remember it going "... they told us all they wanted was a sound the could kill someone from a distance, so they go ahead and the meters are over in the red ..." As for meaning, well I don't know how many people out there know that the British government played around back in the 50's and 60's with many different and horrible methods ending somebodies life.
One of the ideas toyed with was the use of sound weapons. The concept, if I remember right, was to use an ultra-sonic sound wave that would work at the frequency of water molecules. A dreadful, non-discriminating weapon and an extreamly painful death. Kate changed the idea from a ultra-sonic sound to just a sound. What kind of sound can kill? She uses a mix of terrible sounds ("the painful cries of mothers to the the terrifying scream") all mixed to gather into a "killing sound".
Graham Dombkins
From: rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)
Date: Tue, 02 Feb 93 19:51:08
PST
Subject: Experiment IV
Jeff asked about Experiment IV. The 12 inch is on the boxed set, I believe, but I don't know how you can get it otherwise here in San Diego. Here are the lryics:
Date: Tue, 9 Nov 93 15:13:33 EST
From: Andrew B Marvick <abm4@columbia.EDU>
Subject: X4 video
Kath asks about the tall young man in the X4 video. Yes, Kath, the actor in question is indeed Hugh Laurie, the fellow who plays (wonderfully) Bertram Wilberforce Wooster alongside Stephen Fry's Jeeves. The two have been a comedy duo for years in England, and each has done quite a lot on his own, as well. (Also notice comedienne Dawn French in the X4 video, as well as several distinguished UK philocanines!)
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 94 05:58 CDT
From: chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu
(chris williams)
Subject: Exp. IV video
[Experiment IV:]
Dead bodies supplied by the fine folks at Homeground. Editor Peter Fitzgerald-Morris can be seen in the film (tall man with a full dark beard and glasses.) Proof that you can't pay people to lie in cold mud all day long. But rabid Kate fans *will* lie in cold mud all day long for a chance to meet Kate. For free.
From: jeffy@wam.umd.edu (Jeffrey Craig Burka)
Date: 19 Nov 1994
20:55:35 GMT
Subject: Exp. IV
> P.S. Bonus question: Who is the "Professor Jerry Coe" referenced in the video of EXPERIMENT IV?
It's a pun. Biblically speaking, the walls of the city Jericho were destroyed by the sound of trumpets (blown by angels?) The weapon hypothesized in "Experiment IV" is nothing new...
On
to "Wuthering Heights"- New Vocal
written by Love-Hounds
compiled and edited
by
Wieland
Willker
Sept 1995 June 1996