Video: The Mission UK teases new ‘Dum Dum Bullet’ compilation with highlight reel

As we reported last month, The Mission UK is set to release Dum Dum Bullet, a 14-track compilation of B-sides, unreleased demos and tracks left over from 2007’s God Is a Bullet sessions. To get fans excited for the June 21 release, frontman Wayne Hussey has assembled this 7½-minute promo clip that samples a good number of the record’s tracks. He’s also posted some notes on the record on the band’s official site — which we’ve reproduced below — in which he fittingly refers to the disc as “one more ‘last’ Mission album.” See a full tracklist for Dum Dum Bullet here.

Read Wayne Hussey’s ‘Dum Dum Bullet’ notes after the jump…

Wayne Hussey’s notes on The Mission UK’s Dum Dum Bullet:

Just when I thought I had finally escaped and gotten away I get dragged back kicking and screaming.  One more ‘last’ Mission album. OK, this album was mostly recorded during the period we recorded ‘God Is A Bullet’ but there were a few tracks left unfinished until fairly recently when I found both the time and inclination to finish ‘em. There’s also a couple of my demo’s and a couple of alternative GIAB mixes…….Dum-Dum follows in the tradition of Grains Of Sand and Aural Delight. For those who feel so inclined you can conjecture and argue as to what tracks should’ve, could’ve, would’ve made it onto GIAB.

Of the new songs “Room 22″ was a backing track that had been recorded during the GIAB sessions and whilst it was one I always felt had huge potential I didn’t have time to finish it at the time. So, in January this year I added a few more guitars, wrote some words, sang it and then mixed it. For me it’s quintessential Mission – melodramatic & grand, and boasts, for me, one of Richie Vernon’s finest bass guitar recordings. It’s a song co-written by myself and Richie.

It’s not many times you hear a song that was written by the drummer. Well, that’s kind of the case with “So Many Things”. This started life as a bass and drum recording written by Steve Spring, the drummer with the last line-up of The Mission.  I took it home and added all the guitars, vocals, some keyboards and with a bit of programming and some editing, viola…..So Many Things.

“The Earth You Walk Upon” is essentially a Hussey demo that I’ve had hanging around from GIAB times. Again, early this year I wrote some words, sang ‘em, added some more guitars and stuff, and ended up with this.

“Stranger In A Foreign Land” is another Hussey demo that I did for GIAB but didn’t end up using ‘cos I felt it didn’t really sit with the rest of the material we were recording at the time. I did recycle the lyrics though and ended up using them for GIAB. This is a bit of a homage to Led Zeppelin, maybe a little too close for comfort.

“Katya’s Lullaby” is yet another demo of mine, this time one that I wrote and recorded for Aura. This eventually evolved into In Denial from said album. This is an instrumental and I always felt that this particular piece of music, along with the instrumental version of “Still Deep Waters” also included on Dum-Dum, have filmic qualities and so is included here as part of my resume to potentially interest any aspiring film makers as scoring a film is still one of my very few unfulfilled ambitions.

Other tracks of interest, at least for me, is “Blush Remodel” which, obviously, is a completely new reworking of the song Blush from GIAB that I did. The acapella version of “Aquarius & Gemini” as it’s always lovely to hear the detail that Julianne Regan imbues in her backing a which I tried desperately to fit onto the GIAB album but I just couldn’t find a place where it sat right. This, for me, is a song of real substance and was completely wasted as an extra track on a digital download only single, as was Thine.

And MGT’s new mix of “Dumb” which Mark has already told you about in his own uniquely self aggrandizingly modest way! But it IS that good and Mission fans, and by that I mean the ones that think of The Mission as a big loud and noisy rock band, will adore this.

For those of you who shout ‘sell out!’, well, sod you….you don’t have to buy it. But for those that do I hope there’s something here for you although I daresay not every track will be to everyone’s taste.

OK, that’s it from me for the time being. I hope some of you can make it to at least one of my solo shows over the next few months. Until then……England for the World Cup!

Love,

Wayne

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