On the band’s website, Stu described what the band was listening to when making I’m In Your Mind Fuzz: “We were all really getting into classic Kraut Rock at the time and loved those repetitive, motorik beats…” For the uninitiated, Krautrock or kosmische musik, is a genre of rock out of late ‘60s Germany. Known for its very distinct drum patterns, improvisation and experimental production, krautrock would be wildly influential both within rock and outside of it (Kraftwerk were a krautrock band for example). While Mind Fuzz is heavily influenced by the genre, perhaps no other song exemplifies this inspiration more than “Hot Water.”
With its “Hallogallo”-esque vibe, earworm melody and delicate flutes, the song is a standout piece of psychedelia. Yet the gentle music is contrasted by some of the band’s earliest environmentalist lyrics that paint a vague yet bleak picture of humanity. We’re eating to the point of sickness, our systems (whether digital or societal) are failing us and we’re altering our landscape everyday. We’re spineless in the face of climate change, leaving everyone stuck in “hot water.” The title can be seen as a double entendre, referring to the phrase “in hot water” (to be in trouble) and the ocean’s warming waters rising up onto the land.
“Hot Water” also stands out as the first of the fan favorite “water jams'' (such as “Muddy Water” and “Open Water”) and as one of the band’s most played songs. No matter how you look at the track, there’s no denying that it’s one of the band’s most important pieces.
Before performing the song on 2021-12-19, Ambrose says its an “old one” and that Joey wrote the main riff — with Joey adding on that it was one of his first. In fact, it’s the only song from the Mind Fuzz record to have the songwriting credit “Walker/Mackenzie.” While many Mind Fuzz songs appeared as early as February of 2014, the earliest known performance of “Hot Water” happened on 2014-09-18 at the Ding Dong Lounge in Naarm (Melbourne). Early versions start with flute flourishes before heading into the base song. While other Mind Fuzz songs had different lyrics early in their live histories, “Hot Water” was completely finished. It would be played at least two more times before being released with the rest of the album on Halloween 2014.
The studio version was recorded by Wayne Gordon at Daptone Records in Brooklyn, with the mixing done by Stu in the band’s tour van. Unlike the live versions, the studio version fades in with no flute until the main melody.
“Hot Water” continued to be played throughout the end of 2014 into 2015 where it would be given a simple drum intro. It had no concrete placement in setlists until around 2015-09-12 when “Robot Stop” began to be introduced to the band’s live sets. At that point “Hot Water” would become a jam within early versions of “Robot Stop.” This continued in 2016, cementing the two as a notable jam during the Nonagon era. Footage of the song in this timeframe appears multiple times in the documentary BOOTLEG HOLIDAY FROM HELL.
“Robot Stop” was released as the opener of Nonagon Infinity on April 26th, 2016. In the finalized version, it would contain the main melody of “Hot Water” towards the end of its break (where the song appeared in live versions), marking one of the first cross album references in the band’s discography, which was then extrapolated into the idea of the “Gizzverse.” The pairing of “Robot Stop” and “Hot Water” began to change in June of 2016 as the band began to play more of Nonagon Infinity live. Here, the band would start with the first few songs of the album then play a few other tunes before heading back in. “Hot Water” would appear later in the sets after “Road Train” as the band reprised “Robot Stop.”
Based on our data, “Hot Water” would drop off of sets at the beginning of 2017 before coming back in America around 2017-09-23, once again being paired with “Robot Stop.” While it was in heavy rotation, “Hot Water” vanished completely in 2018, only to return on 2019-07-12 at the Thebarton Theatre in Adelaide. While it had often been accompanied by “Robot Stop,” it was beginning to drift away, once again becoming a solo song. Compared to older versions, 2019 versions of “Hot Water” are generally longer and more focused on improvisation. That said, it did appear next to “Road Train" on 2019-07-13 and with “Robot Stop” on 2019-10-19, but was generally split from Nonagon material in this time.
In 2021 the song was reinvented for the band’s acoustic shows. While older versions were wild, the acoustic versions capture the chill attitude of the original.
As the band began to tour again after the COVID-19 lockdown, “Hot Water” returned, starting with an appearance at the Return of the Curse of Timeland festival on 2022-03-05. The next show it appeared at (2022-04-11) would see a unique “Mr. Beat” > “Hot Water” > “Trapdoor,” demonstrating that as the band entered their “jam band” phase, it was no longer tied to any constraints. While the song can appear alongside “Robot Stop” at times, it usually stays away with transitions into other tracks like “Ice V” or “Trapdoor.”