Transmisiones Ferox
Running time	2:18
Appears on	Tomorrow's Harvest

Comments

• The combination of Latin and Spanish in the title of the song causes my mind to find a connection in the Iberian Peninsula where, in tracing the applicability of the thought I find that with respect to Bell Beaker culture "Gordon Childe interpreted the presence of its characteristic artefact as the intrusion of "missionaries" expanding from Iberia along the Atlantic coast, spreading knowledge of copper metallurgy. Stephen Shennan interpreted the artefacts as belonging to a mobile cultural elite imposing itself over the indigenous substrate populations."[1] Portugal has also been identified as one of the early centers from which agriculture and European Megalith culture spread. This is all prior to the end of the Chalcolithic age, the first step in the copper-bronze-iron progression which saw the dawn writing, of large (and bloody) empires, and eventually laid the groundwork for mathematics and astronomy.[2] The Peninsula was also the site of extended conflicts between Rome and other cultures, quite notably the second Punic War, and was eventually conquered and renamed Hispania.[3]
• Narratively, this track follows an upstart civilisation emerging from another ice age as presented on Cold Earth (the first being White Cyclosa). In sustaining the theme of cycles on the album, this track presents a collage of radio transmissions, perhaps from this new upstart civilisation, or even disparate clusters of survivors who only have radios to communicate with each other, mirroring the "aggressive" or "fierce" ("ferox") transmissions as presented in this track. The following track, Sick Times, again repeats, or re-cycles the motif of the downfall of civilisation.

Samples / Lyrics

• The track features a prominent female vocal sample repeating "Nineteen-ninety-nine", as the sample is layered upon itself multiple times it begins to sound like the word "Dying" is being repeated.
  • This female voice could possibly also be saying "nineteen ninety-five", with the recurrence of simultaneous "ni-" and fi-" creating the illusion of the word "dying".
  • It may also be worthwhile to note that the vocal sample seems to begin looping at the very beginning of the phrase. On the second occasion especially it can be heard as "nineteen nineteen five-five-five..." or "nineteen nineteen dying dying dying....".

• In reverse, one can hear "Lift/wake me up!" spoken by the same woman's voice.

• Starting at around 1:59 a slowed down female voice can be heard saying something resembling "The others." This, when reversed sounds like "They're outside." This sample is repeated until the end of the track.

About 1:20 in the synth beat morphs into a heartbeat or possibly two heartbeats, maybe from an ultrasound.

Trivia

• Transmisiones is a Spanish word meaning "Transmissions".
• Ferox is a Latin word meaning "fierce" or "aggressive".
• The title may be a reference to the film Cannibal Ferox (Lenzi, 1981).
  • In the bible, Joseph interpreted the Pharaoh’s (fero) dreams (transmisiones) of the seven thin cows eating seven cows (cannibal ox) and seven heads of grain eating seven heads of grain (cannibal farro) of being seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine. TH’s release date of 2013 would be fourteen years after the lyric “nineteen ninety nine”.
• "Ferox" maybe an abbreviation for "ferric oxide", used in the manufacture of magnetic tape.