There’s someone knocking at my door. “Rat-a-tat-tat”. Curiously precise– a finely tuned machine gun laying siege to the barriers of my world. Shadows shift through frosted glass, a gentle murmur drifts through the dead air between cracks. “Rat-a-tat-tat”. Click, creak, a sliver of light- pupils adjust damn you, take in the sight! “We’ve come to save your soul,” they chorus. Funny, I didn’t realise it needed it. Note to self – improve Morse code.
Shadow number one, step forward please. Hot shimmering air focuses her lines into form. Harmless enough… Sensual, even– tiny pink lips parted ever so slightly in a seductive O. Nodded forward by her automaton, the angel coos. “Embrace truth and be saved.” My truth? Your truth? Who’s truth? Twin green windows to nowhere – I can’t look away. Too late – succubus!
She presses her warmth against me, green glass flashing red – the intoxicating contradiction of malfunctioning light. Delicate needles press through my spine, feeding blind obedience straight into my mind. Goodbye, oh sweet dazzling mosaic. All hail the new regime, the grandest of grand, the mighty melting pot. We’ve one colour to sell – one size for the masses, one key for the king’s cell.
Beautiful exuberance. Now I’m safe, just like her. All knowing, just like her. Look, sweetheart, a door! “Rat-a-tat-tat. I’ve come to save your soul.”
So…. we’ve emerged from our caves with a new sound (and a new headspace?). ’3 Minutes to Midnight’ is the first taste of what you might hear on album no. 2. This was recorded live at the Lansdowne in Sydney (for the 2009 ‘Animals In My Mind’ tour). Yay!
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The talking bits:
We’ve got 3 minutes to midnight so drop the bomb. We had millions of 1′s and 0′s to save the world from. We’ve got 3 minutes to midnight so drop the bomb….
Two men walk into a bar – trade jokes between cigars and try to read the other’s scars… Like maps showing exactly where they’ve been; and all the faces the other’s seen; to feed into their little code breaking machines…
We’ve got 3 minutes to midnight so drop the bomb. We had millions of 1’s and 0’s to save the world from. We’ve got 3 minutes to midnight so drop the bomb. We had pieces of shiny metal to save the world from..
Two men walk into a store – the place their fathers’ shopped before to keep us safe and sound and warm. Ring Ring – each buying snazzy new machines. One in blue and the other green. Daddy would have been so proud if he could see…
From the new regime and straight into your living room. Sponsored sound and vision – drip fed all the latest news. Technical conditions -- people set to overload. No breaks in transmission messing with your thought control…
Save me ‘cause I’m falling apart under fire from grace. Such a curious thing when we’re shooting eachother down for space. And as the sky crashes down to the ground don’t be scared – it can be replaced, we’ve got machines to plug the hole…
Leaves the womb again – kisses her goodbye. Immortality flows through his veins as he steps onto his armoured yacht and sails to safe mediocrity… again. No matter – time is on his side. The clocks run backwards now, but he breathes on in sweet ignorance. Each gifted breath exhaled over a coffee stained keyboard, under the gentle glow of old phosphorous. No matter – time is on his side. Time to live. Time to be. Time to begin again.
Slipping ever so slowly along this clogged artery now, screaming. Transience lingers in the air like heavy fog. I smell rust. Slowly red fades and the film develops itself. Blink. Immortality picked undone as easily as we dreamt it up. The insect has gone –vanished under the heel of fate. I taste rust.
A link is broken – the endless widow and her fatherless son. Chains reform, clockwork re-engages and the world turns again. Shall we dance? For now I hear the rhythm of this fragile, fleeting countdown we have named life. Perhaps tomorrow. Time is on our side.
