Second Red Scare

from Duma by Atumatu

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about

вторая красная паника

Possibly my favourite on the album, Second Red Scare was the first song I ever wrote, sometime in 2015 (possibly late 2014). Although his parts were later replaced, I have to give a massive thanks to Boruch Burnham, whose original bass part helped me get the song off the ground in the first place, and the entire project. The song really began to develop when I added the Bernard Purdie-esque shuffle in the verses and Wojciech added the verse guitar - both the gentle strumming and violent panning stabs. The chorus remains essentially untouched from my original demo. My favourite part of the song is the bridge - originally meant for a saxophone solo, I created some nice loops and weird effects inspired once again by Ulver's Assassination of Julius Caesar album. Derick added some strange guitar and Greg and I fucked it up to create a shoegazing effect ala Slowdive or the end of Steven Wilson's Pariah. Sid's riffing in the next section really ties the track together for me. I definitely abused synth arpeggios on this one!

Thematically, the song revolves around the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenburg in the McCarthyism period of the United States. Declared to be spies, the married couple were accused of transmitting nuclear weapon designs to the Soviet Union. Convicted in 1951, the couple were executed via electrocution on June 19, 1953. Julius was the first to be executed, around 8pm. His body was removed from the chamber containing the electric chair and Ethel Rosenberg was led in and strapped to the chair. She was pronounced dead at 8:16 pm. Both proclaimed their innocence. The track features several samples of the execution, but also of Thomas Edison discussing electricity; something I found darkly fitting. The use of samples to tell a story in this album, but particularly in this song, was heavily influenced by Porcupine Tree's Signify - particularly the tracks Sever, Idiot Prayer and Intermediate Jesus.

The original song title was "Julius & Ethel" before I discovered that Bob Dylan had a rare song with the same name, and thought something more unique would be fitting.

credits

from Duma, released April 27, 2018
Written by Downton, Krishnan and Pielużek

Quinn Downton - drums, drum programming, loops, percussion, keyboards, samples
Sidharth Krishnan - guitars
Greg Maclean - bass, fx
Derick Penrod - guitars [shoegaze]
Wojciech Pielużek - guitars

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Atumatu Waterloo, Ontario

Atumatu is an experimental rock project with progressive and electronic elements founded and led by drummer Quinn Downton, and enlists the talents of other musicians from around the world.

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