Clubbed to Death is a 1995 song by Rob Dougan

Rob Dougan

Rob Dougan, also known as Rob D , is a genre-blending music composer. Mixing elements of orchestral music, trip hop, and bluesy vocals, his work is tangentially relatable to electronic music. He was known primarily for his breakthrough 1995 single "Clubbed to Death ", further popularised by 1999's...

. It was given renewed attention in 1999 due to its inclusion in the film The Matrix

The Matrix

The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...

. It was re-released as a single in 2002 with new remixes.

Release

Dougan frequently attempts different variations of the same track, which usually find their way onto single releases. The "Kurayamino variation" of "Clubbed to Death" is significantly more well-known than any other version due to frequent radio and club play, and later to its appearance in the 1999 film The Matrix

The Matrix

The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...

. As a result, when people reference "Clubbed to Death," they generally mean the "Kurayamino variation" rather than "The First Mix" (both versions were available on the 1995 initial releases on Mo' Wax

Mo' Wax

Mo' Wax was a UK-based record label owned by James Lavelle, who founded it in the early 1990s with Tim Goldsworthy. Steve Finan became co-owner shortly after. The label came to recognition for being at the forefront of trip hop, turntablism and alternative rap during the mid-90s...

).

The subtitle Kurayamino variation is Japanese for darkness's variation ( means darkness, and is the genitive suffix

Suffix

In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...

). It denotes Dougan's own mix in a tragic style, as well as his stated inspirations from dark Japanese writers such as Yukio Mishima

Yukio Mishima

was the pen name of , a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor and film director, also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d'état...

 or Yasunari Kawabata

Yasunari Kawabata

was a Japanese short story writer and novelist whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award...

.

"Clubbed to Death" samples

Sampling (music)

In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...

 "It's a New Day" by Skull Snaps

Skull Snaps

Skull Snaps was a funk group that released one eponymous album on the small GSF label in 1973 before disappearing. It was, in fact, the group originally known as the Diplomats, which released numerous singles between 1963 and 1970 with some success....

.

The short strings intro is an excerpt from the first movement of Edward Elgar

Edward Elgar

Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...

's Enigma Variations

Enigma Variations

Variations on an Original Theme for orchestra , Op. 36, commonly referred to as the Enigma Variations, is a set of a theme and its fourteen variations written for orchestra by Edward Elgar in 1898–1899. It is Elgar's best-known large-scale composition, for both the music itself and the...

, and the piano solo is improvised around Enigma Variations as well.

The drum'n'bass producer Peshay's mix of "Clubbed to Death" was included on the Big Brother

Big Brother (UK)

Big Brother UK is the British version of the Dutch Big Brother television format, which takes its name from the character in George Orwell's 1948 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four...

soundtrack

Soundtrack

A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...

, following the first series of Big Brother in the UK. This version features only minimal string, piano and synthesizer

Synthesizer

A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

 parts and light percussion with a breakbeat

Breakbeat

In 1992, a new style called "jungalistic hardcore" emerged, and for many ravers it was too funky to dance to. Josh Lawford of Ravescene prophesied that the breakbeat was "the death-knell of rave" because the ever changing drumbeat patterns of breakbeat music didn't allow for the same zoned out,...

 section in the middle of the song. A sample of "Clubbed to Death" is used in commercials for the NCAAW basketball tournament

NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship

The NCAA Women's Division I Championship is an annual college basketball tournament for women. Held each April, the Women's Championship was inaugurated in the 1981–82 season...

. The track is famous in the UK for being featured on numerous reality TV show montages.

Clubbed to Death (Compact Disc Experience)

Mo Wax, MW037CD, 1995

1. "The First Mix" – 7:12
2. "Kurayamino Variation" – 7:29
3. "La Funk Mob Variation" – 8:08
4. "Peshay Remix" – 6:06
5. "Spoon Mix" remixed by Carl Craig
   Carl Craig
   Carl Craig is a Detroit-based producer of techno music, and is considered to be one of the most important names in the Detroit second generation of techno producers and DJs...
   
    – 5:55
6. "Clubbed to Death Darkside" remixed by La Funk Mob – 5:05

Clubbed to Death #1

Mo Wax, MW037, 1995

1. "La Funk Mob Variation"
2. "Clubbed to Death Darkside"
3. "The First Mix"

Clubbed to Death #2

Mo Wax, MW037R, 1995

1. "Kurayamino Variation"
2. "Peshay Remix"
3. "Spoon Mix"
4. "Totally Waxed Remix" remixed by Wax Doctor

New 2002 remixes

• "Radio Edit" – 3:13
• "Tom Middleton
  Tom Middleton
  Tom Middleton is a prolific British recording artist, music producer, remixer and DJ.A classically trained pianist and cellist, Middleton worked in the early 1990s with Richard D. James , co-producing "En-Trance To Exit" on the Analogue Bubblebath EP for Exeter's influential Mighty Force Records...
  
   Club Mix" – 8:23
• "Point 4 Remix" – 5:55
• "Hybrid Remix" – 8:17
• "Hybrid Remix" (JH Edit) – 3:27
• "Rollo
  Rollo Armstrong
  Rollo Armstrong is one half of the music producers/remixers team Rollo and Sister Bliss and is a founding member of the electronic music group Faithless.-Early life:...
  
  House Mix" – 6:39

Charts

Chart (2002)	Peak position