Wistman’s Wood, Dartmoor 1970s

This Killing Thing (Live) and the ecological context of Wistman’s Wood

The lyrics for this track were inspired by a visit to Wistman’s Wood in the late 1970s. Even back then, its environmental and cultural importance was well recognised, as it’s one of the most significant remaining fragments of Britain’s Atlantic temperate rainforest. Although small in extent, the wood represents a rare continuity of pre‑Neolithic forest ecology and provides a useful framework for understanding the track’s atmosphere, instability, and sense of impending destruction. This track is in many ways about man's impact on the environment - 'This killing thing inside this machine' -  we are, in fact, the killing thing.

Where pitted stone becomes knotted oak...

This Killing Thing (Live) captures This Window at their most unfiltered: a moment where chaos isn’t just present, it’s the entire accidental aesthetic. The mix is still being wrangled, the sound engineer is fighting a losing battle, and just as the levels begin to settle… the cassette player recording the gig stops, collapsing into its own ending - the fade out is post production.

What you hear is a rare fragment of a This Window gig — and “rare” isn’t marketing language. Live appearances are few few and far between, almost nothing from that era survives in any usable form. This recording, taken at a private event in 1990, is one of the very few documents of the band in a room, in real time, with all the glorious instability that implies.

It’s raw, abrupt, imperfect, and absolutely true to what a This Window performance was: tension, noise, improvisation, and the sense that the whole thing might fall apart at any second. That volatility is the point. This is the sound of a band that never polished the edges, because the edges were the art. 

credits from Extractivism, track released January 1, 1990

Wistman’s Wood as a temperate ancient rainforest

Ecologically, Wistman’s Wood meets the criteria for a temperate rainforest:

• high annual rainfall driven by Atlantic weather systems,
• consistently cool, humid conditions,
• dominance of ancient, stunted Quercus robur (pedunculate oak),
• exceptionally rich bryophyte and lichen communities.

The site is particularly notable for its assemblage of oceanic lichens, including Bryoria smithii, recorded at only two locations in Britain. The woodland’s survival is largely due to its steep, boulder‑strewn terrain, which prevented historical clearance and allowed a continuous ecological lineage extending back several millennia. It is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for its unique Atlantic rainforest characteristics.

Atmosphere, instability, and the track

The live recording of This Killing Thing is marked by instability: an unsettled mix, abrupt dynamics, and the sense of a performance captured mid‑flux. When placed in dialogue with Wistman’s Wood, this instability becomes thematically resonant. The forest’s microclimate is characterised by rapid shifts in humidity, light, and acoustic behaviour; sound is absorbed by moss‑laden surfaces, and movement is constrained by the granite boulder field.