Low clouds fumble the rain.
Low clouds fumble the rain.

Lo see there –
The snow is stars around us
Is bones
Is hearts
Around us

Does this space
Does this space
Where the stars don’t exist
Does this space
Does it bring you
Bliss?

As the clouds fumble the rain.

Low clouds fumble the rain
The snow is stars around us,
Is bones,
Is hearts,
Does it bring you?

Liner Notes

#ambient #spoken_word #fusion #expansive #space #electronic #vocal

This poem was one that I sang last week into my phone, except it was basically completely different. It’s engineered in Garageband using midi instruments I played and layered effects through. It’s gone much more “wall of sound” than I anticipated, given that it started out spooky, acoustic, and delicate.

I’m always amazed at where some of these things go sometimes – they seem almost independent.

It didn’t go anywhere near where I expected it to either, becoming this echoing, swirling thing that could very well be my FAWM end title this year.

I never thought I’d be living in the city
Never thought it could be so gritty
I never thought that the lights
in the night would be so pretty
Never thought that the lights
in the night would be so pretty

Feel the shove out the airlock
Just as damned as the cell block
It’s all ice on the skin shock
Memories of the boardwalk
There’s nothing I can see
And I know that its gunna be
a while
Be a while
Be a while

I never thought I’d be living in the city
Never thought it could be so gritty
I never thought that the lights
in the night would be so pretty
Never thought that the lights
in the night would be so pretty

You can feel all the new highs
That the void’s gunna baptize,
You’ll be born of your dark cries
Rainbow frost in your ice eyes.
There’s nothing I can see
And I know that its gunna be
a while
Be a while
Be a while

Feel the shove out the airlock
Just as damned as the cell block
It’s all ice on the skin shock
Memories of the boardwalk
There’s nothing I can see
And its gunna be a while
Be a whileCity
Be a while

Flying in hot and hoping for fair trial
Search the place, fronting for a real smile
Is this neutrality or is it something hostile?
See them glaring like you fit some kind of profile
Wooden gavel lands and gives it to us old style
Cameras flash then we’re walking down a dark aisle
Hope remains that they’re sending us to exile.
But I feel the pressure of a one way spinning turnstyle

I never thought I’d be living in the city
Never thought it could be so gritty
I never thought that the lights
in the night would be so pretty
Never thought that the lights
in the night would be so pretty

Feel the shove out the airlock
Just as damned as the cell block
It’s all ice on the skin shock
Memories of the boardwalk
There’s nothing I can see
And I know that its gunna be
a while
Be a while
Be a while

I never thought I’d be living in the city
Never thought it could be so gritty
I never thought that the lights
in the night would be so pretty
Never thought that the lights
in the night would be so pretty

Never thought of the skin shock
Memories of the boardwalk…

#electropop #R&B #vocals #rock #experimental

I’ve been trying to stretch my production chops this FAWM, and I’m trying to be less afraid to experiment with all the tools at my disposal. Super out of my comfort zone.

I was looking through some loops and hit on this old-school grind piano riff by JoeFunktastic on Looperman. As it played, a few phrases started to materialize and then there was this concept. It’s kind of adjacent to the space pieces that I seem to be pulled toward every FAWM. I’m also feeling tension in a lot of places about people casting really harsh judgements at each other, and some days it feels like everyone is on trial. I realize that’s reflected here too. Kinda cheerful for a “pushed out the airlock” kind of song I guess?

With samples and a little keyboard synth work, it came together.