| "Papua New Guinea" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Single by Future Sound of London | |
| Released | 1991 |
| Recorded | 1991 [1] |
| Studio | Earthbeat Studios [1] |
| Label | Jumpin' & Pumpin' [1] |
| Songwriter(s) | Garry Cobain, Brian Dougans [1] |
| Producer(s) | Yage [1] |
"Papua New Guinea" is a 1991 song by the electronic music group Future Sound of London. It was the group's debut single and later appeared on their full-length album Accelerator . [2] The single reached #22 on the UK singles chart. [2]
Garry Cobain described himself as being "bit of an indie kid" in the mid 1980s, being a fan of the Manchester-based Factory Records acts such as Joy Division. [3] Cobain reflected in 2006 that he had played guitar but was "never very good, and I'm still not very good at it." [3]
This led Cobain going to the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. [3] At the school he met Brian Dougans who was studying sound recording and was also a fan of Factory Records bands like A Certain Ratio. [3] Cobain described Dougans as "I was well envious of Brian, and he was also a couple of years older, which seemed to be very significant when I was in my late teens. He was very much a guiding force, and he was also extremely charismatic." [3] Dougans was producing music for bands but after dance music became popular in the United Kingdom he began working on tracks like "Stakker Humanoid". [3] Cobain stated that he managed to get money working at Heathrow Airport, through his landlord and through the Enterprise Allowance Scheme leading him to develop his own music, and that after Dougans "ran into some trouble", they teamed up to become the group that would develop into Future Sound of London. [3]
The duo released several tracks under aliases, some of which Cobain felt in retrospect were "admittedly dodgy — but we were always looking for the opportunity to start getting weirder, and gradually we found it." [3] Cobain recalled that the music industry at the time was very aimed towards dance singles at the time, while Dougans and Cobain wanted to make what Cobain described as "big, sprawling, cosmic, ambient rock albums — in other words, concept albums — which would be easy for us." [3]
Accelerator was developed at Future Sound of London's studio called Earthbeat which was located in Dollis Hill in Northwest London. [3] The engineer credited on the "Papua New Guinea" was YAGE, who Cobain described as "semi-fictitious and semi-real" and admitting that it was "kind of an alter-ego for the both of us". [3] The name was derived from Yajé, a vision-inducing drink that is made from a psychoactive jungle vine and plants. [3] Cobain described the development of "Papua New Guinea" as him writing, sequencing and playing the Roland JX-3P top-line synth parts live, and doing the same for the strings which were triggered from the 1040. [3]
The song samples the bass line from Meat Beat Manifesto's "Radio Babylon" with Lisa Gerrard's vocal from "Dawn of the Iconoclast" by Dead Can Dance. [3] Cobain described the sampling choices stating that the "Radio Babylon" bass line was "one of the greatest within the culture" while the bass line in "Papua New Guinea" was "kind of a staccato sampled version." [3] The Dead Can Dance sample came from a mixtape sent to a band members' girlfriends collection which she received from a man she had been seeing briefly. [3] Cobain stated that he had "always loved Dead Can Dance but I didn't have that particular album, so I sampled it from the cassette." [3]
"Papua New Guinea" was released in the United Kingdom in 1991. [3] The label that was to release their debut album Accelerator held off releasing it for about 9 months and only released it after "Papua New Guinea" became a hit. [3]
The song later featured on the soundtrack album for the hybrid animation film Cool World starring Gabriel Byrne, Kim Basinger and Brad Pitt.
Garry Cobain later referred to the track as not "the best piece of music I've ever written, but it just hit a mindset". [3] From retrospective reviews and commentary, Simon Reynolds described the track as a "sumptuous, gorgeously emotional rave anthem". [4] Pitchfork had the song placed on their list of the top 200 singles from the 1990s, with writer Tom Ewing declaring it "A great example of breakbeat techno's early, optimistic peak, when simply nailing the right vocal sample-- here Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance-- put you halfway to something memorable." [5]
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Music Week Dance Singles Chart [6] | 42 |
| 1992 | UK Singles Chart (Official Charts Company) | 22 |
| 1992 | Music Week Dance Singles Chart [7] | 1 |
| 2001 | UK Singles Chart (Official Charts Company) | 28 |
Experience is the debut studio album by English electronic music group the Prodigy. It was first released on 28 September 1992 by XL Recordings in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States.
The Future Sound of London is a British electronic music duo composed of Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans. They have been described as a "boundary-pushing" electronic act, covering techno, ambient, house music, trip hop, psychedelia, and dub.
Dead Can Dance is the debut studio album by Australian musical act Dead Can Dance. It was released on 27 February 1984 on the 4AD label.
Ambient house is a downtempo subgenre of house music that first emerged in the late 1980s, combining elements of acid house and ambient music. The genre developed in chill-out rooms and specialist clubs as part of the UK's dance music scene. It was most prominently pioneered by the Orb and the KLF, along with artists such as Global Communication, Irresistible Force, Youth, and 808 State. The term was used vaguely, and eventually fell out of favor as more specific subgenres were recognized.
Within the Realm of a Dying Sun is the third studio album by Australian band Dead Can Dance. It was released on 27 July 1987 by 4AD.
Bomb the Bass is an electronic music alias of English musician and producer Timothy Simenon.
Accelerator is the debut studio album by British electronic group the Future Sound of London. It was released in April 1992 by the record label Jumpin' & Pumpin'. It includes the hit single "Papua New Guinea".
Lifeforms is the second studio album by British electronica group The Future Sound of London. The album was released on 23 May 1994 by Virgin Records and later by Astralwerks.
"Lifeforms" is a song by British electronic music group The Future Sound of London, released as a single through Virgin Records on 1 August 1994. It is the second single from their 1994 album, Lifeforms. Vocals on the single were performed by Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins.
Teachings from the Electronic Brain is a compilation of songs from throughout the career of British band The Future Sound of London, and was released in 2006. The diversity of their wide range of work is even more apparent on a compilation such as this.
Brian Robert Dougans is a British musician, and a member of the British electronic duo, the Future Sound of London (FSOL).
Garry John Cobain is a British electronic musician, and one half of the Future Sound of London.
Alice in Ultraland is a 2005 album by experimental electronica group Amorphous Androgynous, which is a side project of The Future Sound of London.
"It's a Fine Day" is a song written by English poet and musician Edward Barton. It was originally recorded a cappella in 1983 by Jane and later by Opus III, for whom it was a major international hit in 1992.
"Stakker Humanoid" is an 1988 track by Humanoid released in 1988 on the London-based label Westside Records. It is described by The Guardian as "the first truly credible UK acid techno record to break into the mainstream."
Graham Vernon Massey is a British record producer, musician, and remixer.
So This Is Love is a soulful house track by FSOL under the moniker Mental Cube. Recorded in 1991, it was also featured on the Earthbeat compilation album of the following year.
The Pulse EP is an EP released by The Future Sound of London partly under the alias Indo Tribe, two tracks under that name, and the other two are FSOL tracks. One FSOL track is from their first album Accelerator and one of the Indo Tribe tracks is from the 1992 compilation album Earthbeat.
Pulse 2 EP is an EP released by The Future Sound of London partly under the alias' Indo Tribe, Smart Systems and FSOL. The FSOL tracks "Stolen Documents" and "In 8" would later be put on the Accelerator album with "In 8" becoming "1 in 8".
Environments 3 is the third in The Future Sound of London's "Environments" series of albums, released on 7 June 2010. Unlike previous FSOLDigital releases, the album was not made available as a download several months before the CD release. Because of this, the record was heard several weeks in advance due to early shipping from the website Juno. The record sleeve announced a fourth album in the series.
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)