Micro Cuts (song)

Muse song
Name	Micro Cuts
Album/single	Origin of Symmetry (7) » Hullabaloo Soundtrack (12) Hullabaloo (3) H.A.A.R.P. CD (12)
Length	3:38
Alternative titles	Bass Trem
First live performance	12th February 2001
Latest live performance	21st November 2007 (full) 15th July 2010 (riff)
Recorded	Real World Studio Wiltshire, 2001
Writer/composer	Matthew Bellamy
Producer	John Leckie

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Description

A blend of baroque melody, high pitched vocals and metal. Matthew Bellamy uses falsetto and whistle register vocals peaking at G5 during the chorus and Ab5 in descending vocals towards the end. Matt has said the song was inspired by a dream he had in which he was in desert and there were giant blades swinging from the sky.[source?]

"Micro Cuts" has been speculated to have been inspired by Prelude N°3 in D minor (BWV999) by Johann-Sebastian Bach.

Matthew Bellamy definition of Micro Cuts

"This stems from hallucinations I had of triangular blades cutting into the back of my head. It's a feeling that information is being infiltrated into your brain. I'd seen a TV programme about psychological warfare and how the government could be controlling us using a type of radiation, sending pulses to our brains. So micro cuts are cuts into your being that you can't see or avoid"

Live

Live favourite on the 2001 and 2002 tours. The first time Micro Cuts was played live, it featured different lyrics in place of "Micro waves me insane, A blade cuts in your brain" and the chorus. Early live versions featured an extended outro that featured parts of the song "Execution Commentary", as well as extra lyrics.

The descending vocals towards the end of the song have been played intermittently through time. During early 2001 it wasn't sung at all, and post 2002 it wasn't usually sung, although one example of the descending vocals post-2002 was at The Mercy Lounge in 2004. In the latter half of the 2005 tour, the post-final-chorus section was used as an outro to "Stockholm Syndrome" on at least two occasions.

"Micro Cuts" made a return to set lists during the 2007 European tour. The first performance of 2007 featured a largely clean guitar (without effects), while further performances feature a "new effect", which mimics the layering on the album recording. The descending vocals have not returned, while vocals have been clean so far. After the final chorus and before the final decent, Bellamy has used the Kaoss pad to create a sound similar to the Kaoss pad solo and outro used with live "Supermassive Black Hole" performances.

Played occasionally during the Absolution and the Black Holes and Revelations tours. A live version of "Micro Cuts" appears on the live albums Hullabaloo Soundtrack and H.A.A.R.P..

During The Resistance tour, the outro is played in place of the outro to "Dead Star".

Lyrics

Hands are red with your blame
Megaphone screaming my name
Whimpers someone I should've loved
Souls weeping above

I've seen
What you’re doing to me
Destroying puppet strings
To our souls

Micro waves me insane
A blade cuts in your brain
Sounds like forks on a plate
Blackboard scratched with hate

I've seen
What you’re doing to me
Destroying puppet strings
To our souls

Early live version

Early versions included an extra vocal piece towards the end - though the wording is not known - and included sections of the riff from Execution Commentary.

Florence 2007 version

Souls screaming above

instead of

Souls weeping above

See also

• Commercial use in media

Go back to Origin of Symmetry