Tiny Dynamine
| Tiny Dynamine | ||||||||||
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| EP by Cocteau Twins | ||||||||||
| Released | 15 November 1985 (UK) | |||||||||
| Genre | Ethereal wave | |||||||||
| Length | 16:28 | |||||||||
| Label | 4AD - BAD510 | |||||||||
| Producer | Cocteau Twins | |||||||||
| Cocteau Twins chronology | ||||||||||
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| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
Tiny Dynamine is an EP by the Scottish rock group Cocteau Twins, released on 4AD Records. The EP featured four non-album tracks. It was issued on 15 November 1985, two weeks prior to another EP, Echoes in a Shallow Bay. The two EP sets, which featured complementary artwork, were also released as a combined double EP in a gatefold cover and as an eight-track CD. The EP was reissued in 1991 as part of The Box Set and in 2005 as part of the singles/EP collection Lullabies to Violaine.
The band did not originally intend to release these songs to the general public, presumably explaining the decision to release the material on EPs, rather than as what would have been their fourth album. The tracks on Tiny Dynamine and Echoes in a Shallow Bay were initially recorded to test the production capacities of a new studio. When the band decided the material was strong enough for release, they completed the recording process and issued the finished product on two EPs.
"Pink Orange Red" and "Plain Tiger" were performed live. An acoustic version of "Pink Orange Red" appeared on the 1995 EP Twinlights, and a remastered version appeared on the 2000 compilation Stars and Topsoil.
Many of the titles on the two EPs seem to have some link with Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths). Most are obscure, but the plain tiger is a common Asian butterfly and the lyrics to "Melonella" (on Echoes In A Shallow Bay) are simply a recounting of various Lepidopteric family names such as Hesperiidae and Papilionidae.
All songs written by Cocteau Twins.
The four songs on Tiny Dynamine exhibited many trademark Cocteau Twins elements: effects-laden guitar, fluid bass, emotional vocalisation, indecipherable lyrics, multi-layering of guitar and vocal lines, and unusual vocal melodies. "Pink Orange Red" also displayed a song structure that was characteristic of several Cocteau recordings, starting slowly with just guitar and voice but changing gear partway through into a more powerful second section. "Ribbed And Veined" is an instrumental recording only (something of a rarity in the band's back catalogue), and juxtaposed a brittle, guitar-led melody with characteristic waves of liquid bass. "Plain Tiger" and "Sultitan Itan" both exhibited a definable verse/chorus structure, alternating between more spaciously melodic verses and more raucous and rhythmically relentless chorus sections.
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