Song history written by TimelandIsWacky
Opening Laminated Denim is a bright and breezy fifteen-minute prog rock/Krautrock jam called “The Land Before Timeland.” The lyrics are strange, focusing on a process of self-actualization with the help of demons and potentially even time travel. It also namedrops “The River” and “Rattlesnake”, and interpolates the main riff of “Hypertension”, connecting it to the Gizzverse at large. The song features a gong hit every five minutes as well as an accenting rhythm at 60 bpm, tying the song back to Made In Timeland’s concept.
“The Land Before Timeland” was played by Ambrose (keyboards/percussion/harmonica/vocals), Cavs (drums/percussion), Cook (bass/guitar), Joey (guitar/bass/synthesizer), Lucas (keyboards) and Stu (vocals/guitars/keyboards/synthesizer/percussion). It was first heard during the band’s intermission on 2022-10-10. Laminated Denim was released on October 12th, 2022. Alongside the album’s release, the band uploaded the official countdown clock visualiser made by Jason Galea. The countdown clock for “The Land Before Timeland” features a wire frame version of the snake statue seen on the cover of Chunky Shrapnel at 4:34.
The song had been teased as far back as 2022-10-24 and had also jammed on multiple occasions (see 2025-06-06 and 2025-11-07). Throughout that time, “The Land Before Timeland” had become an anticipated debut, and one which the band hinted at. In the live chat before the debut of the music video for the GUM/Ambrose track “Ill Times,” Ambrose said “Gizz has been meaning to practice land before tideland [sic]. Haven’t gotten around to it yet but its on the cards!”
It wouldn’t be until the first night of Field of Vision II on 2026-08-14 that the song would finally see a full performance.