Czech One

Album: The Ooz (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Czech One" is the lead single from The Ooz, Archy Marshall's second album under the performing name of King Krule. Marshall has family from the Czech Republic and the track is inspired by his Eastern European ancestry.
  • Marshall is a big fan of The Sopranos; he pulls an errant line of dialogue from a trippy dream sequence in the crime drama.

    The train's motion
    Untidy echo
    And she pants


    Marshall explained to 52 Insights: "There's this scene where Tony's nephew kills the Czech guy in the first series and then he has this dream sequence, and the first line in 'Czech One' is something said in their conversation in this dream sequence."
  • The bizarre Frank Lebon-directed video shows Marshall looking out of a plane window with his left eye bandaged up. In the visual for the next single, "Dum Surfer," Marshall portrays himself arriving at a gig while flat out on a hospital trolley. Q magazine asked him why he chose to look ill in the clips.

    "Because a lot of the songs are about internal damage," he replied. "So it's just indirectly saying to the viewer: damage, pain. You know you can physically see it. I don't have to spell it out to you."

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