FEATURE:
Hope Seems So Distant…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional image for The Ninth Wave/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
Kate Bush’s Under Ice
___________
I wonder whether…
many people break down the individual tracks from Kate Bush’s The Ninth Wave. This is the second side from her 1985 album, Hounds of Love. On Sunday, I marked thirty-five years since The Big Sky was released as a single. That single was released on 28th April. It was the final single from the album. I look at songs from The Ninth Wave and I am curious whether there was a temptation to put any out as single, or whether Bush felt she could not break up the individual tracks. I have written features regarding the songs from The Ninth Wave. I have not yet covered Under Ice. Coming after And Dream of Sheep, we get this rather sombre scene where the protagonist is adrift at sea and looking for salvation. Eventually, the heroine is saved after an ordeal alone at sea. I might rank the tracks from that second side in a future post. I think that Under Ice is one of the most evocative and stunning pieces of work that Kate Bush has ever recorded. Every track on The Ninth Wave has its own mood, texture and atmosphere. I love Paddy Bush’s harmony vocals on the song. I assume that it is the Fairlight CMI that she uses to get the stirring string sounds. We hear snippets of other voices as Bush sings about getting out of the cold water.
Before moving on to its lyrics, the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia drops in an interview source where Bush talked about Under Ice:
“Well at this point, although they didn't want to go to sleep, of course they do. [Laughs] And this is the dream, and it's really meant to be quite nightmarish. And this was all kinda coming together by itself, I didn't have much to do with this, I just sat down and wrote this little tune on the Fairlight with the cello sound. And it sounded very operatic and I thought "well, great" because it, you know, it conjured up the image of ice and was really simple to record. I mean we did the whole thing in a day, I guess. (...) Again it's very lonely, it's terribly lonely, they're all alone on like this frozen lake. And at the end of it, it's the idea of seeing themselves under the ice in the river, so I mean we're talking real nightmare stuff here. And at this point, when they say, you know, "my god, it's me," you know, "it's me under the ice. Ahhhh" [laughs] (Richard Skinner, 'Classic Albums interview: Hounds Of Love. Radio 1 (UK), aired 26 January 1992)”.
At 2:21, Under Ice is the shortest track on Hounds of Love. It acts as a bridge between And Dream of Sheep – where the heroine wishes she could sleep safely and dream of sheep – and Waking the Witch – where voices appear, urging the woman to stay awake so that she does not drown. In a way, Under Ice is the moment when the castaway gets into real trouble and realises that she needs to get out of the water. As we move through The Ninth Wave, there is a sense of acceptance and relative calm before the heroine is saved and taken back to land. I love all the little stories and chapters of that remarkable suite! Under Ice has this stern and almost haunted sound, where Bush’s voice seems to move in time with the strings. There is this seriousness and sense of foreboding in her voice. It is like Bush represents this ghostly figure or voice that is in the head of the protagonist; maybe her mind is urging her to cling to life and find a way out. There are not many lyrics in such a short song. The ones we do hear are stunning and so image-rich. One can listen to Under Ice and place themselves in the song; alongside the heroine as she is on a life raft or on her back trying to stay afloat – not sure of what lingers beneath the moody ocean. There is a division and difference between the two verses.
The first is almost like the heroine embracing the whiteness and icy expanse. There is something almost child-like. That is the impression one can get from reading the lines. When one hears the song, there is something more urgent and darker: “It's wonderful/Everywhere, so white/The river has frozen over/Not a soul on the ice/Only me skating fast/I'm speeding past trees/Leaving little lines in the ice/Splitting, splitting sound/Silver heels spitting, spitting snow”. The second verse is trying terrifying! Bush has said in interviews how being stranded in the sea and not knowing what is underneath is one of her biggest fears. That is scary on its own. I think being trapped under ice and having that above your head is even more alarming: “There's something moving/Under, under the ice/Moving under ice/Through water/Trying to get out of the cold water/"It's me."/Something, someone--help them/"It's me". Having to battle hypothermia, the unpredictable nature of the sea and this ice tomb, Under Ice delivers one of Hounds of Love’s most thrilling, arresting and emotional songs. It is no surprise that, on Waking the Witch, the heroine is exhausted and struggling to stay awake. On an album filled with gems and genius songs, Under Ice is one that does not get talked about in the same way as the singles on the first side such as Cloudbusting, Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), and Hounds of Love. I think that Under Ice should be played more as, in its lack of layering and naked simplicity, it conveys so much weather and wind. By that, I mean Bush relies on the almost taunting string sound and her ghostly vocal to immerse us in a scene filled with dread and uncertainty. If songs on Hounds of Love’s first side are warmer, musically, and are more commercial, I feel The Ninth Wave is more experimental and varied in terms of its sound and mood. One listens to Under Ice and fears that the heroine will not make it out. Thankfully, there is a satisfying resolution where…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a shot from the Hounds of Love covert shoot/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
SHE made it to safety!