Colossal Spin

Here’s a rare mix for radio from 1996.

That searing synth sound was created by overloading the strings sample on an old Ensoniq EPS through layers of guitar pedals and finally into stressed-out 8 track tape system. Isn’t that how all the best sounds are made?

Also: remember that Sano accordion amp? Yup, it makes an appearance here too. But the day we recorded it’s part, though, the tube gods just weren’t aligning and we couldn’t coax anything remotely pleasant-sounding out of that thing. It sounded more like a dying elephant than the smooth, silky feedback tones we were used to. Oh well, Zurich can’t be magical all the time.

The lyrics for this song were written while Zurich was exploring the Badlands of South Dakota. The thought that inspired him was the nature of evidence versus the someone’s conviction of “truth” and the fine line between belief and delusion (if such a line exists), or something lame like that. Some fans preferred to read these lyrics as some sort of declaration against a dysfunctional relationship (a fair assumption, given the frequent occurrence of that particular theme in Zurich’s writing…).

This recording of the song got a little radio play in 1996 and 1997 on some Philadelphia and Baltimore radio stations. That was cool, too.