Metronomic Underground

"Metronomic Underground" opens Emperor Tomato Ketchup at 7:55, written by Gane and Sadier and recorded in 1995 mostly at Idful Studios in Chicago with John McEntire; it was originally titled "Chrome Tubby". It starts sparse over a steady bassline with sounds panning left to right and a dub-like, phased space, and Mary Hansen sings her first vocal on the album in two-part harmony with Sadier. Sadier's lyrics were influenced by the I Ching. It was released as a single on December 2, 1996 according to the album's article. Gane stressed that the track was fully written before he flew to the US, and the Quietus calls it the first serious vindication of his looping method. In 2019 liner notes quoted by the Quietus he remembered a very up period, and said the method began by looping a four-note phrase from their cover of the Godz's "ABC" and adding looped drums.

FACT calls it bowdlerised funk and Clash notes its staticky groove. JamBase pages carrying setlist.fm data show it played on the 2019 reunion tour: Englewood on October 7, Phoenix on October 10, Vancouver on October 14, Seattle on October 15, San Francisco's Fillmore on October 18 and 19, and Sydney on March 8, 2020. A search summary says Sadier introduces it as music for meditation, which we could not verify. We cannot tell whether our upload is the studio version, and found no covers or samples.