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Radiophonic

Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 1999
Original album - Nightlife
Producer - Pet Shop Boys, Rollo
Subsequent albums - (none)
Other releases - (none)

Stylistically and even lyrically one of the most interesting tracks on Nightlife, one that some critics have cited as demonstrating that Neil and Chris retain a musically adventurous streak. Yet the Boys themselves have professed a somewhat "retro" source of inspiration: they "wanted to make an Eighties-sounding song in the vein of Patrick Cowley," the pioneering San Francisco-based producer of synth-heavy disco music who became an early casualty of AIDS in 1982.

Very much in a hi-energy mode, "Radiophonic" sounds almost like one of Chris's instrumental workouts to which Neil has molded lyrics. Those lyrics focus on an extended metaphor in which Neil compares the feeling of falling in love—and, as he told an interviewer for Manchester City Life, of "lying in bed with a hangover"—with loud, driving, pounding dance music ("like a dub sub-sonic beat-box booming bass under the bed") that permeates your brain and body, staying with you, even remaining a part of you long after you've left a dance club. Quite ingenious.

Incidentally, the word "radiophonic" wasn't coined by the Boys. Rather, it dates all the way back to the 1950s when BBC radio producers began experimenting with the musical potential of electronic sound manipulation. They initially described their experiments as "electrophonics," but found that that term already had a totally unrelated medical usage. So they coined the term "radiophonics" to describe their own work. The "Radiophonic Workshop," as it was called, became best known for having originated the Doctor Who theme music. And both Neil and Chris have confessed to being major Doctor Who fans, especially in childhood.

As one of my site visitors has pointed out to me, the Radiophonic Workshop often produced music that most listeners at the time found extremely strange and disconcerting. It's likely that this is the metaphor that Neil is evoking in this song: that love can produce just such a sense of oddness and disconcertedness in those whom it strikes, particularly in its early stages.

Annotations

As noted above, the term "radiophonic" refers to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, established in 1958 to produce sound effects and special music specifically for radio (and later television). It lasted until 1998, when the BBC finally shut it down. It's perhaps best-known for having produced the now-legendary theme music for the long-running British TV series Doctor Who, composed by Ron Grainer and arranged by Delia Derbyshire. The workshop also created numerous other sound-effects for the show, such as the unmistakable sound of the TARDIS materializing and dematerializing. As for the PSB lyrics, the song comes right out and describes the sensations the narrator is experiencing as being "like a radiophonic workshop orchestrating all my stupid fears" [my emphasis].
The lyrics mention a subsonic beatbox, which would presumably be a beatbox, a slang term for both a drum machine and a portable device capable of playing music very loud—either definition works in the context of the song—that's capable of reproducing subsonic frequencies, also known as "infrasound." These are sonic frequencies so low that they can't be heard by the human ear but the vibrations of which can nevertheless be felt. Electronic musicians occasionally employ subsonic frequencies precisely to produce such vibrations. At extremely high levels, however, they can actually cause discomfort, disorientation (perhaps not unlike the twitching, pounding, shaking, and aching described elsewhere in that same stanza of the song), illness, injury, or even death. The lyrics also modify the term "subsonic beatbox" with the word dub, which can have quite a few different meanings in music, but in the context of the song I would guess refers to largely or completely instrumental mixes of dance tracks, often referred to as "dub" mixes.
The Pet Shop Boys' demo version of this song (released as a bonus track with the 2017 reissue of the album) features even more prominent "Doctor Who-derived" sounds and effects in its instrumentation. It also has some different lyrics, particularly in the second verse. And it includes sampled vocals from the 1979 Dynasty hit "I Don't Want to Be a Freak (But I Can't Help Myself)," used repeatedly throughout the demo.
One of my site visitors has suggested a slightly different interpretation of this song—that the radiophonic "sonic metaphor" applies not only to the feelings the narrator has about falling in love, as I've described above, but also (if not more so) to his growing ability to express his love aloud as he repeatedly cries out, "I think I'm in love." It's about communication more than anything else. I wouldn't say that I personally agree with this alternate take on the song, but neither can I say that it's without merit.

Mixes/Versions

Officially released

PSB renditions

Mixer: Rollo
Mixer: Pete Gleadall and Pet Shop Boys

Demo (5:15)
- On one of the "Further Listening" bonus discs accompanying the 2017 Nightlife reissue

List cross-references

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