Clone of The Universe

Clone of The Universe
Studio album by Fu Manchu
Released	February 9 2018
Recorded	July 2017 at Susstudio and The Racket Room in California
Genre	Stoner Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Progressive Rock
Length	36:48
Label	At The Dojo Records
Producer	Fu Manchu, Jim Monroe
Fu Manchu chronology
Slow Ride / Future Transmitter (2016)	Clone of The Universe (2018)	Live at Roadburn 2003 (2019)

Clone of the Universe is the twelfth studio album by American stoner rock band Fu Manchu, released on 9 February 2018 on their own label At The Dojo Records. Notably this album would feature the band's longest song in the 18-minute "Il Mostro Atomico", which features Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson as a guest.

Background

Clone of The Universe would be recorded and produced by Fu Manchu and Jim Monroe at The Racket Room in Santa Ana, California, with additional recording by Andrew Giacumakis at Susstudio in Simi Valley, California. Further details on this album would be revealed in December 2017, including the title and release date along with Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson making a guest appearance on "Il Mostro Atomico" which is the band's longest song at just over eighteen minutes. Scott Hill would speak about this lengthy song and getting Lifeson on the record in an interview with Pure Grain Audio:

“	“I don't think we ever went, 'Hey, let's do an 18-minute song. Everyone will love it!' Yeah, we kind of like, we wrote about 14 or 15 new songs for the new record. We usually do about a 10-song record, that's kind of our limit. We whittle down the songs that we really like and we kept coming up with all these riffs and riffs and instead of writing full songs to every riff we had, I had this little slow riff which was the intro riff for the song. I was, like, 'Look, why don't we do this? Let's record all the riffs we have, put them together, keep the best ones, see which ones flow together and let's just do that as side two of the record?' And everyone was, like, 'Yep. That's what we're doing.' We had a lot to choose from. We thought that was the best arrangement for the song with all the stuff we had. Yeah, it was definitely cool having all these riffs. We can't keep making songs. We already got ten we really like and we already had to whittle that down to six for side one. It just came out of a bunch of riffs and we put stuff together that we thought flowed well." [On getting Alex Lifeson as a guest] "First off, I would never of thought Alex Lifeson would have been on our record, ever, ever. Our manager is friends with his manager and they were talking: 'Hey, what's Alex up to?' 'He's in the studio playing guitar.' Their manager went 'What's FU MANCHU up to?' Our manager is like 'They're getting ready to go in and do a record.' And I think our manager, at some point, was like, 'Would Alex like to play guitar on FU MANCHU's record?' 'Let me check.' He got back and said, 'Yes, send him a demo of the song.' So, we thought it's got to be the 18-minute song on the record, it just has to. We had a rough version of it and sent it to him. He listened to it and said 'Yeah, I like it. Let me know what you want me to do.' We were like 'What?!?' Is this a joke? We couldn't believe it. We're just, like, 'Alex Lifeson is asking us. What the hell?' So, we went into the studio and recorded it in the studio and sent it up to him and he just played guitar all over the place and said, 'Use whatever you want, however much you want, do whatever you want with all that guitar.' It fit perfect in this section where we all kind of drop out. He just made this rhythm guitar, he made it up himself and kept going with it. He did all this cool sci-fi type feedback, even a couple of pick-slides in there. It fits perfect. We were very excited."”	”
	— Scott Hill, Pure Grain Audio (Transcribed by Blabbermouth)

Clone of The Universe would be released via At The Dojo Records on 9 February 2018, peaking at #5 on the Billboard Heatseekers and attaining a Metacritic score of 78, with "generally favorable reviews". Notably Clone of The Universe was also heavily praised by underground critics such as Blabbermouth, The Obelisk, Sputnik Music and lastly Metal Assault whom awarded the album a perfect 10/10 score.

Tracklist

• 1. Intelligent Worship (3:01)
• 2. (I've Been) Hexed (2:48)
• 3. Don't Panic (2:04)
• 4. Slower Than Light (3:26)
• 5. Nowhere Left to Hide (4:19)
• 6. Clone of The Universe (2:57)
• 7. Il Mostro Atomico (18:07)

Personnel

Fu Manchu

• Scott Hill - Guitar, Lead Vocals
• Bob Balch - Guitar
• Brad Davis - Bass
• Scott Reeder - Drums

Other Personnel

• Alex Lifeson - Lead Guitar (7)
• Curtis Mathewson - Taurus Pedals (7)
• Jim Monroe - Recording, Engineer, Mixing, Producer
• Andrew Giacumakis - Engineer (Drums, Bass; Tracks 1, 5, 7)
• Carl Saff - Mastering
• Kieron Cropper - Artwork
• WB72 - Layout, Logo, Art Design
• John Gilhooley - Band Photo
• Hillarie Jason - Live Photo
• Jon Alexandersson - Live Photo
• Nick Sayers - Live Photo
• Tanguy Dupre - Live Photo
• Tell Draper - Live Photo

External Links

• Discogs
• Bandcamp