Experiment IV

"Experiment IV" is a song by the English singer Kate Bush. It was released as a single on 27 October 1986, in order to promote Bush's greatest hits album The Whole Story. The single peaked at 23 in the UK Singles Chart, charting simultaneously with "Don't Give Up", Bush's duet with Peter Gabriel, which reached number 9.

Overview
The song tells a story about a secret military plan to create a sound that is horrific enough to kill people. The ending of the story is unclear, but in the music video nearly every person working on the project is killed by the horrific sound, which is personified by Bush herself as she changed from an angelic apparition into a horrific flying monster.

The song features Nigel Kennedy on violin, who at one point replicates the screeching violins from Bernard Herrmann's famous scoring of the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho.

The B-sides of both the 7" and 12" singles included a re-working of Bush's 1978 hit "Wuthering Heights". On the 12" single, the 1980 song "December Will Be Magic Again" was included as an additional B-side track.

An extended version of "Experiment IV" appeared on the 12" vinyl release of the single. Both versions of the song were included on the second volume of rarities in the box set This Woman's Work, released in 1990. A slightly longer version, known as the 'Video Mix' appears on 2019's The Other Sides.

Music video
The music video adapts the song's "storyline" by chronicling the destruction of a secret military installation by a creature made of sound. The science fiction film-in-miniature was directed by Bush and features appearances from Dawn French, Hugh Laurie, Richard Vernon, Peter Vaughan, Paddy Bush and Del Palmer. Bush appears on screen as an orderly officer serving tea, as the sound creature and at the end entering a van. British costume designer Charles Knode made the masks of the sound creature and most of the video was shot in a disused military hospital in south east London.

In a 1987 interview for The Kate Bush Club, Bush recounted her experience of directing the video, "I had such strong visual ideas while I was writing the song that I wanted to give directing another go. It's the first time the video and song have come together. Although this was the most complicated of my directions, it was so much easier for me because I appeared in it only briefly, so I could concentrate on being behind the camera which I really enjoy. It was wonderful to work with people who I admire so much and was a very exciting experience."

Before the editing of the full video could be completed, a minute-long segment was created for Top of the Pops, but the show refused to play it as they considered it to be "too violent". Channel 4's The Tube aired the video in its entirety and it was also shown in cinemas as an accompaniment to a feature film.

Critical reception
Upon its release, William Leith of NME described "Experiment IV" as a "slow, creeping song" and a "mood piece" which is "more reserved and wintry" than "Hounds of Love". Mark Putterford of Kerrang! wrote, "Chilling, moody, beautiful... you know the kind of magical musical spell our Kate can weave, and even if you haven't been mesmerised by her yet there's every chance that this one will do the trick." Jerry Smith of Music Week called it "dramatic" and "excellently produced". Roger Morton of Record Mirror noted that Bush "sets [her] vision of a future where music is used as a weapon of destruction to another one of those nudging, understated melodies". He added, "This one's all gliding guitars and whispered warbling, fading into throbbing Apocalypse Now chopper blades."

Track listing
All songs were written by Kate Bush.


 * 7" single (UK)


 * 12" single (UK)

Chart performance
In Australia, "Experiment IV" narrowly missed the Kent Music Report top 100 singles chart in December 1986.