After a description of the world in the future, we are formally introduced to the narrator of this story, Han-Tyumi. Speaking through the Charles UK text to speech voice, he explains that he was born into a dark world without humanity and that he yearns for two human experiences: to die and to vomit. These two things are actions that a cyborg is incapable of and to Han-Tyumi represent what it means to live. In an interview for Observer Stu said “...so you have a character called Han-Tyumi, which is an anagram for ‘humanity.’ Han-Tyumi is kind of like an idiot child or something, a half-human being maintaining very little of his humanity in the distant future. Han-Tyumi, over time, becomes obsessed with humanity, and wanting to regain some of that. I suppose none of that seems awfully unreal or hard to imagine. He becomes obsessed with death and vomiting. Yeah, he’s a confused cyborg, this futuristic guy who wants to regain his humanity, and he decides the two most human things are death and what we would call vomiting, which there’s no digital equivalent of.”
While first depicted in the music video for “Robot Stop” in 2016, “Han-Tyumi and the Murder of the Universe” is the first time he was introduced as a proper character. Since then he has appeared on other songs (including live performances of other songs like with “God Is In The Rhythm”), album covers, posters, and has even appeared in soundchecks. Han-Tyumi is one of the most beloved characters in the Gizzverse and it all comes back to this introduction. The song itself is inspired by Krautrock with a 15/4 motorik groove and a distinct bass line.
The song was initially conceived as “Jam In E” according to a whiteboard scribble. A clip of this song is heard at the end of the demo for “Digital Black” released on Demos Vol. 6: Music To Burn Money To. The riff of the song is reused in “Soy Protein Munt Machine.” It was released on Murder of the Universe on June 23rd, 2017.
The song is featured in Jason Galea’s music video for “Han-Tyumi and the Murder of the Universe” released on April 11th, 2017. The section of the video for “Han-Tyumi, the Confused Cyborg” is made up of text transcribing Han-Tyumi’s words. Behind the words is a variety of backgrounds with a variety of effects.
The earliest known performance of “Han-Tyumi, the Confused Cyborg” was on 2017-09-23 at the Audiotree Music Festival in Kalamazoo. Throughout the year the song would be part of a medley of mainly Murder of the Universe material: “Welcome to an Altered Future” > “Digital Black” > “Han Tyumi, The Confused Cyborg” > “The Lord of Lightning” > “Cellophane.” This continued with the band until March of 2018 when the song fell out of setlists. Versions from October 2017 to March 2018 feature an alternate set of lyrics which appeared under the Facebook upload of the music video for “Crumbling Castle.” These lyrics feature a number of phrases used in other songs such as “The Acrid Corpse,” “Tezeta,” “Hell’s Itch” and numerous songs on The Silver Cord.
Following 2018, the song was played rarely, with one performance in 2019 on 2019-10-15 and another during the band’s marathon show on 2020-02-21. Skipping a year, “Han Tyumi, the Confused Cyborg” returned on 2022-03-05 for the Return of the Curse of Timeland festival as part of a nearly full performance of “Han-Tyumi and the Murder of the Universe” minus “Welcome To An Altered Future.” This would be its primary spot in the band’s shows going forward, although it was given an isolated acoustic rendition on 2023-06-04 and was heard within the the first full performance of “Han-Tyumi and the Murder of the Universe” on 2024-09-01 (this performance also saw the track unusually performed on their synth table “Nathan”).