Spoken word section from a song in my head - what's it from?

January 18, 2017 6:00 PM

There's a spoken word section in a song that drifted into my head and I'm trying to remember what that song is. Here's what I recall - it's brief, a fairly deep and scholarly man's voice giving spiritual type advice with some swirly, electronic/ambient/tinkling music underneath.

He says something like "Observe those..." or "Take those...". I'm thinking it's a band like The Orb or FSOL (I listen to a lot of similar artists). The voice is very clear and upfront, not buried in the mix. What is this track I'm half remembering?

posted by davebush to Media & Arts (12 answers total)

I have doubts that this is the correct answer — I wouldn't call the voice “deep” or “scholarly” — but the first thing that came to my mind was Guided Smile Meditation at the end of Vulfpeck's Thrill of the Arts.
posted by D.Billy at 6:07 PM on January 18, 2017

Maybe too obvious, but Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen)?
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 6:21 PM on January 18, 2017 [2 favorites]

The full version of Here Comes the Flood from Robert Fripp's Exposure? Or the title track?
posted by maudlin at 6:26 PM on January 18, 2017

Deteriorata?
posted by praemunire at 6:28 PM on January 18, 2017

Could it be Hooverphonic? Magenta, from Blue Wonder Power Milk has a guy with a deep voice speaking -- saying things like "look up", "look right", "turn the world magenta". The music could reasonably be described as "swirly, electronic/ambient/tinkling". Listen starting around 2:10.

I think some of their other songs have spoken word bits as well.
posted by duoshao at 6:54 PM on January 18, 2017

Was the guy speaking maybe Terence McKenna? he released some of his own albums but was also sampled by psytrance acts like Shpongle.
posted by sea change at 6:58 PM on January 18, 2017

Response by poster: A bit more came to me - pretty sure the words "hold on" are spoken.
posted by davebush at 7:46 PM on January 18, 2017

Desiderata?
posted by angiep at 8:30 PM on January 18, 2017

In the Name of the Father by Gavin Friday?
posted by fshgrl at 11:32 PM on January 18, 2017

There's a ton of Alan Watts lectures set to music, mostly on Youtube, but he's also been heavily sampled. Here's one on Youtube, for example.
posted by Happy Dave at 1:24 AM on January 19, 2017

Best answer: It came to me. It's from PM Dawn's "Jesus Wept" - the intro.
posted by davebush at 5:26 AM on January 19, 2017

I was going to suggest several songs from the album Haunted by Poe, but on preview, never mind!
posted by nicebookrack at 5:29 AM on January 19, 2017