17. You Retreat In Time And Space

[Waterbagel]

i almost wonder if they're looking at the way that everyone talks about them as milking the feeling of nostalgia, especially in the context of nostalgia as a galvanizing concept for more nefarious political movement (which aren't exactly ignored in these last two albums), and with the name 'you retreat' ... not putting the thought together quite cogently at the moment, but maybe later

[Redd Panderson]

i almost wonder if they're looking at the way that everyone talks about them as milking the feeling of nostalgia, especially in the context of nostalgia as a galvanizing concept for more nefarious political movement (which aren't exactly ignored in these last two albums), and with the name 'you retreat' ... not putting the thought together quite cogently at the moment, but maybe later

I feel like I'm picking up what you're putting down. That's that negative edge of nostalgia again: retreating into a fantasy of a time that actually never existed while avoiding what needs to be faced. I think there's a layer of that to this, too. But I also think that the lean into a sort of an earnest bit of smarm kinda works for this track? Kind of like taking a step back from a self-conscious need to be Cool Melodies Guys and just kinda embrace something simple and joyful. All these things can go hand in hand, which is an ambiguity that tracks for them.

See, now I'm in the same spot, it's not coming out quite right

[Waterbagel]

See, now I'm in the same spot, it's not coming out quite right

hahaha but i can tell we're on the same wavelength!! and in being so, we have seen each other - so say we all as the beautiful point of the forum

[drvaughan]

Really good stuff! Picking up on the word choice of "retreat" in the title...good insight, especially with the "lean into it" aspect. There's a reason several of us are picking up on connections to specific older moments in the catalog, but it doesn't directly quote any of those moments; intentional nostalgia is never note perfect. And the first part of the track has that mournful earlier half, as if that is the tragedy one is retreating from.

Interesting to consider this song from an ironic standpoint and give it an underside: "intentional nostalgia is something we use to turn away from the realities of tragedy and loss. it's something to be skeptical of. but, check this out...feels good right?"

[Waterbagel]

Interesting to consider this song from an ironic standpoint and give it an underside: "intentional nostalgia is something we use to turn away from the realities of tragedy and loss. it's something to be skeptical of. but, check this out...feels good right?"

yeah exactly!!!

plus, man, the first chunk of it is just soooo sweetly mournful. it reminds me of something. i can't think of what. but i swear i can see someone in my mind's eye crying, but coming to peace, in the middle of a church, or in the middle of some realization, or something. i could swear the thing i'm thinking of is from twin peaks, but i scrubbed through a couple of soundtrack albums and never found it. will have to see if i come across it some day

[Den]

Deep Time sounds related to You Retreat In Time And Space through the quality of their recordings too.

[Redd Panderson]

Interesting to consider this song from an ironic standpoint and give it an underside: "intentional nostalgia is something we use to turn away from the realities of tragedy and loss. it's something to be skeptical of. but, check this out...feels good right?"

yeah exactly!!!

plus, man, the first chunk of it is just soooo sweetly mournful. it reminds me of something. i can't think of what. but i swear i can see someone in my mind's eye crying, but coming to peace, in the middle of a church, or in the middle of some realization, or something. i could swear the thing i'm thinking of is from twin peaks, but i scrubbed through a couple of soundtrack albums and never found it. will have to see if i come across it some day

I absolutely thought of Twin Peaks on the opening part too. White lodge energy.

I also vividly felt that it was like a sepia-toned montage of an elderly person in their younger years. It has this vibe of not only evoking that but also of opening itself up to having an intentionally accessible quality for that generation, if that makes sense. Like if both Mike and Marcus passed away tomorrow, this is something that their less musically-inclined relatives could hear and shed a tear with right away.

[b0qurant]

my first-listen response to this track was 'underwhelmed' (& I noticed my Twoism peers having transformative experiences so felt a smidge of 'FoMO') but in the time since it has grown magnificently for me.

hard to distill the journey, but succintly: it, of course, sounds quite MhtRtC-esque (and this was part of my initial critique ... I could'not help but feel it was "Roygbiv 2").

however, then I considered: we are nearly thirty years from MhtRtC.
the title, "You Retreat in Time and Space," could be interpreted in many ways.
I dabble with the idea that this song is like an homage/recognition/mourning of their own past selves, but of course rendered with their "new sound" (more live instrumentation, etc.).
and that theme runs throughout Inferno ... their 'past sounds' buried within the new sound. the past inside the present-kinda deal.
e.g. I noticed Prophecy has tons of flutey sounds buried in the mix (and that many tracks end with sounds I would associate with their earlier releases). it'is like how your past selves/memories are contained within your "current self" and occasionally your past pokes its head out and says "hello" (or even, some'times, unfortunately, "fuck you !").
they have rendered that past-inside-the-present theme more vividly than ever before in this album, and they have mostly done it through meticulous audio choices that feel discernible as a longtime fan.

considered within their discography (and even just within Inferno's seeming themes of death, change, vastness), it'is a poignant, rich, bittersweet reflection on what was and what is.
if the whole album sounded like this song, that would have been a retread and a bit disappointing.
it being the timbre of one tune (and the penultimate one at that !) is some'thing else entirely. fairly loaded.

and ... y'know ... it'is also simply a beautiful and well-constructed tune.
I initially let my intellectualized and hasty critique of the whole Idea get in the way of appreciating its beauty.

[drvaughan]

Interesting to consider this song from an ironic standpoint and give it an underside: "intentional nostalgia is something we use to turn away from the realities of tragedy and loss. it's something to be skeptical of. but, check this out...feels good right?"

yeah exactly!!!

plus, man, the first chunk of it is just soooo sweetly mournful. it reminds me of something. i can't think of what. but i swear i can see someone in my mind's eye crying, but coming to peace, in the middle of a church, or in the middle of some realization, or something. i could swear the thing i'm thinking of is from twin peaks, but i scrubbed through a couple of soundtrack albums and never found it. will have to see if i come across it some day

Is it "Mysteries of Love" from Blue Velvet? Same director and composer, different part of Lynch's world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgXlMNDezk4

[Waterbagel]

Interesting to consider this song from an ironic standpoint and give it an underside: "intentional nostalgia is something we use to turn away from the realities of tragedy and loss. it's something to be skeptical of. but, check this out...feels good right?"

yeah exactly!!!

plus, man, the first chunk of it is just soooo sweetly mournful. it reminds me of something. i can't think of what. but i swear i can see someone in my mind's eye crying, but coming to peace, in the middle of a church, or in the middle of some realization, or something. i could swear the thing i'm thinking of is from twin peaks, but i scrubbed through a couple of soundtrack albums and never found it. will have to see if i come across it some day

Is it "Mysteries of Love" from Blue Velvet? Same director and composer, different part of Lynch's world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgXlMNDezk4

hah, no, but i did go through that Julee Cruise album looking for it! and enjoyed a nice jam through Falling on the way

[Glen_Glog]

I appreciate that this had a few sick bass riffs on there, well done lads

[Glen_Glog]

the persistent phasing reminded me of this

[Negamuse]

I appreciate that this had a few sick bass riffs on there, well done lads

YES. This whole album feels a lot more organically "performed", but the bass track for this sounds like you can actually hear them having fun with it.

That's probably a really important thing to put across in the sign off of an album this heavy. "Hey, We've been to some places but it's all good" you know?

[Den]

my first-listen response to this track was 'underwhelmed' (& I noticed my Twoism peers having transformative experiences so felt a smidge of 'FoMO') but in the time since it has grown magnificently for me.

hard to distill the journey, but succintly: it, of course, sounds quite MhtRtC-esque (and this was part of my initial critique ... I could'not help but feel it was "Roygbiv 2").

however, then I considered: we are nearly thirty years from MhtRtC.
the title, "You Retreat in Time and Space," could be interpreted in many ways.
I dabble with the idea that this song is like an homage/recognition/mourning of their own past selves, but of course rendered with their "new sound" (more live instrumentation, etc.).
and that theme runs throughout Inferno ... their 'past sounds' buried within the new sound. the past inside the present-kinda deal.

considered within their discography (and even just within Inferno's seeming themes of death, change, vastness), it'is a poignant, rich, bittersweet reflection on what was and what is.
if the whole album sounded like this song, that would have been a retread and a bit disappointing.
it being the timbre of one tune (and the penultimate one at that !) is some'thing else entirely. fairly loaded.

and ... y'know ... it'is also simply a beautiful and well-constructed tune.
I initially let my intellectualized and hasty critique of the whole Idea get in the way of appreciating its beauty.

Thank you for writing this one - I've tried to focus on this aspect of the song because it's so enticingly different than anything they've ever released. After the chimes came in at the session, I only registered the melody and bass. I was excited to hear the song again, imagining all of the detail that my brain could not accept in the moment, and then, shockingly, while listening for the first time after the session, my projection of You Retreat In Time And Space completely fell apart. The dense details are not there. And this is clearly deliberate - it's the sound of a band playing live (and this contrast seems to play into the Societas X Tape influence). I treasure the vulnerability of its placement on the album. I also love the quality of the voices in the hymnal sounding section. They evoke this child-like awareness for me that's just out of reach right now.

[A_Northern_Soul]

That's probably a really important thing to put across in the sign off of an album this heavy. "Hey, We've been to some places but it's all good" you know?

It definitely has a "we've made it!" - end-of-a-journey feeling. What that journey is is open to interpretation...

[jcnporter]

I had a quick watch of ixi's run through of Inferno and her take on this tune did resonate with me - I thought when I first heard it that it was very BOC, almost a pastiche as someone said earlier in the thread, but she reckons there's at least a couple, if not more, callbacks to their back catalogue in it, either on purpose or subconsciously. It made me listen to it in a completely different way.
Not that I can point out exactly what's being referenced, but suddenly I'm hearing beats and bass from MHTRTC, flashes of melodies here and there that make me think of Geogaddi, the first part gives me Farewell Fire vibes, the tv theme synth touches feel like Nothing is Real or 84 Pontiac Dream. The title feels like it's hinting in that direction as well. It feels like them taking us on a trip down memory lane and I absolutely love it. And not to mention those sublime wee bass runs...

[Den]

The second section is a pastiche of themselves in this sense. And the bass groove is Oscar See Through Red Eye, but then when Mike plays the fills it immediately creates this feeling of a live band playing.

[Negamuse]

Today, I enjoyed the bit where they seem to be playing individual wind chimes in time to the music.

[steeldancer-x]

You’re allowed to feel good. You don’t need permission and you shouldn’t have to be told.

[turquoise70]

I think it's significant that there's only *one* song on this record that... *really* sounds like this, and it's the second-to-last one.

I think if it was *any* different - you know, like three songs peppered throughout, or if this arrived earlier on the record, it would have a different effect. Maybe, *maybe* then I'd feel a little more like people who say this is pandering. Inferno is *not about* this sound, overall, and its inclusion to me is super, super intentional. It clearly, if you ask me, *means* something that there's this kind of... statement, at the very very end. I think that's what it is, I think it's just taking a *moment* to stop and look back.

I'm 40 now. In a way I never did at earlier points in my life, I very much feel the crucial importance of that *one* little pause and look back behind you, to *hold* those moments that have passed. The bros are not making MHTRTC part deux here. They're incorporating and consolidating all of the past into a new thing. Maybe this is just me going through a divorce and projecting or whatever, but to me, this moment at the very tail end of a long LP-worth of a journey is the final pause in the doorway and peer back into the room before you step out. If anything, I think they could have even done just a smidge more of this sound without it being overdone.