To Here Knows When

The Tremolo EP single that reached 29 on the UK chart, with a bass part made from a looped BBC sound effects record.
My Bloody Valentine, from Tremolo EP (1991)

Written by
Bilinda Butcher, Kevin Shields
Released
4 February 1991
Album
Tremolo EP

Butcher and Shields wrote the song, and the band produced it. It was the lead single from the Tremolo EP, released on 4 February 1991 with Swallow on the B-side. The EP version has a longer and more ethereal coda, while the version on Loveless is a different mix with an alternate ending. In place of a bass track the band looped a BBC Radiophonic Workshop record of sounds described as "a disaster in the distance" and "a nuclear bomb going off". Ó Cíosóig was ill and could not play, so a drum machine with delay used samples from his kit on both versions.

It reached number 29 on the UK singles chart, the band's highest entry and its only top 40 single. Dele Fadele of NME wrote in 1991 that it was possibly the strangest single ever to chart. Angus Cameron directed the video. Alexis Petridis put it first in his 2023 ranking of the band's 20 best songs and wrote that when the Tremolo EP reached the label the consensus was that the tape was defective, and that buyers returned the CD convinced it was faulty.

More songs by My Bloody Valentine

Sometimes, Only Shallow, When You Sleep, Soon

Sources

  1. To Here Knows When, Wikipedia
  2. Tremolo (EP), Wikipedia
  3. My Bloody Valentine's 20 greatest songs, ranked, The Guardian (2023-02-02)