"The unfortunate centerpiece of Dead Cities, We Have Explosive was FSOL's attempt to keep their record company happy and record a piss-take of the music they had once championed. Gaz explains:
"Having written some of our deepest and most personal music, the unimpressed faces of the record company execs was evident - this weird shit wasn't what they'd signed us for - they wanted a leftfield dance band (it had been suggested we'd only been signed because Leftfield had signed elsewhere and were unavailable) Anyway, I felt these very fun esoteric sound games were ending - communication was breaking down and constipated corridors confronted us at Virgin. One day, feeling gloomy, stuck and misunderstood, we wrote the most straightforward thing we could - right in the face totally apparent - it was a kind of unconscious trap to see if they'd bite and if they did our respect would die. Of course they bit - within a day it was on the Wipeout game and they were going for it - strategising and plotting to use the dance mechanism which had lost its allure about five years earlier but was now hitting boomtime. Within a day of writing it we watched dismayed while the mechanism that was beginning to seize up on the music we truly loved effortlessly clicked into gear - for us the track quickly paled into something reprehensible - funny enough it was set to become our biggest hit (no 12). I was mortified and felt that after all the great exploring of unknown terrain we'd done this was several big steps back - oh no we were a fuckin techno band again forever consigned to the techno section of record shops"
The piece is a straight forward breakbeat track with acid synths and electronic vocals, and the most straightforward piece the band had recorded in years. It is also a semi remix of Herd Killing, with the same samples. Both tracks were mixed into one the piece We Have Explosive (Herd Killing). To counter this, the piece ends with a dream-like soundscape, including tinkling bells and what sounds like a dying pig. The track was released as the second single from Dead Cities, in a slightly altered form."
Taken from the official website of FSOL:
"The unfortunate centerpiece of Dead Cities, We Have Explosive was FSOL's attempt to keep their record company happy and record a piss-take of the music they had once championed. Gaz explains: "Having written some of our deepest and most personal music, the unimpressed faces of the record company execs was evident - this weird shit wasn't what they'd signed us for - they wanted a leftfield dance band (it had been suggested we'd only been signed because Leftfield had signed elsewhere and were unavailable) Anyway, I felt these very fun esoteric sound games were ending - communication was breaking down and constipated corridors confronted us at Virgin. One day, feeling gloomy, stuck and misunderstood, we wrote the most straightforward thing we could - right in the face totally apparent - it was a kind of unconscious trap to see if they'd bite and if they did our respect would die. Of course they bit - within a day it was on the Wipeout game and they were going for it - strategising and plotting to use the dance mechanism which had lost its allure about five years earlier but was now hitting boomtime. Within a day of writing it we watched dismayed while the mechanism that was beginning to seize up on the music we truly loved effortlessly clicked into gear - for us the track quickly paled into something reprehensible - funny enough it was set to become our biggest hit (no 12). I was mortified and felt that after all the great exploring of unknown terrain we'd done this was several big steps back - oh no we were a fuckin techno band again forever consigned to the techno section of record shops" The piece is a straight forward breakbeat track with acid synths and electronic vocals, and the most straightforward piece the band had recorded in years. It is also a semi remix of Herd Killing, with the same samples. Both tracks were mixed into one the piece We Have Explosive (Herd Killing). To counter this, the piece ends with a dream-like soundscape, including tinkling bells and what sounds like a dying pig. The track was released as the second single from Dead Cities, in a slightly altered form."