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 a accenting rhythm at 60 bpm, tying the song back to Made In Timeland’s concept. The song 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).
“The Land Before Timeland” 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 has never been played live, but was teased on 2022-10-24. That said, the band had been meaning to play it live. 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!”