1. |
Life In A Major Key
03:40
|
|||
|
Life In A Major Key
I send a signal wave into the purple sky
A message to the great all-seeing eye
To a god I don’t believe in anyway
…There’s only us to blame
On the sleeper train
Under alien stars
The world that I knew
Torn asunder and strange
But no one complains
Living life in a major key
Life in a major key
Life in a major key
And when the hammer brings the whole facade down
And the torrents sweep their feet from off the ground
Pseudo-heroes and pretenders to the throne
Does it matter now?
On the sleeper train
That cuts through permafrost
I know that I’m lost
Everyone here is strange
Rictus grins on their face
Living life in a major key
|
||||
2. |
||||
|
Chloe's Brain
Head in someone’s hand
Nothing in proportion
Expressionist and
Hard knocks coming down on me
The heat comes with the night
And puts me in the furnace
I’m done in and I don’t feel normal
Something in her brain
Is spilling on the page
To climb the walls again
The shadows form
And play at being real
The night that never ends
Here Black Anna stands
And now she’s in the distance
My tunnel eyes see hands
Reaching for the void
The sufferers heap mountain high
Now tears roll down the walls
Their mournful song
Playing on repeat
Something in her brain
Is walking off the page
To climb the walls again
The mirror shifting near and far away
In the night that never ends
|
||||
3. |
1993
03:32
|
|||
|
1993
Nineteen ninety-three
A pivotal year for me
I was young
And you had plans for me
I’d lose myself in your room
Where nothing else mattered
Then I’d take a bottle with me
And stare out to sea
As the moon gazed down
Someone else’s street
As life went by
With these wings I’d try to fly
But I’d never get away
In every face I’d meet your gaze
I’d just hide away
Never giving much of me
And I’d learn to love
This fait accompli
|
||||
4. |
A Tear In The Fold
04:25
|
|||
|
A Tear In The Fold
Don’t pass me by
Carried along by the movement
A tear in the fold
And now old age is the reason why
In summers long
Light passes over me
The song in the trees
Measuring time for me
My father’s bench
Watching the birds in the garden
Not present or past
No such earthly illusion
In summers long
Light passes over me
The song in the trees
Measuring time for me
In summers long
Light passes over me
The song in the trees
Measuring time for me
|
||||
5. |
||||
|
End Of Terrain
I live at the end of terrain
In Reykjavík rain
Out on dirt-stained ice roads
I scan the grey noise
Where dwarf trees touch the void
For solace at the edge
Comfort at the end
To see an old man young again
For solace at the edge
There’s a strange light
Hanging over a Northern sky
Just to see it
Leaving everything far behind
For the moment
For the strike of a solar flare
I live at the end of terrain
At the edge of the frame
Water colour skyline
Under solar winds
My fingers touch the void
I live at the end of terrain
In Reykjavík rain
There’s solace at the edge
Comfort at the end
I see an old man young again
There’s solace at the edge
There’s a strange light
Hanging over a January sky
Just to see it
Leaving everything far behind
For the moment
At the strike of a solar flare
A collision
Now I know that you’re there
I live at the end of terrain
In Reykjavík rain
|
||||
6. |
Another Level Down
03:23
|
|||
|
Another Level Down
And as one thing leads to another
Taken to another level down
As the people lose their gaze to their mirrored other
Taken to another level down
Intoxicated by the playboy clown
How would it feel to be the last one standing?
“What can we do?
No one’s listening!”
Taken to another level down, again
“In the name of God
On our knees bent down and
cowering”
Taken to another level down
See the colours in the night time sky
How would it feel to be the last one standing?
To go down
As the history book did note
What can you say to the cynic’s joke?
We go down and down
’Til we can’t stop
|
||||
7. |
2039
04:47
|
|||
|
2039
Twenty thirty-nine
Just a few years down the line
It’s coming round the corner
Skidding round the bend
Asleep at the wheel
Like dead bodies float
We’re damned to stay at the surface
Or we’re told to take a side
Take a punt
In this two-ring circus
In twenty thirty-nine
Fully grown men in their cribs
Sleep soundly as babies
Hush! Don’t disturb them
They’re dreaming their lives
But it’s coming round the corner...
I’ll reach out over land and sea
But in the noise no-one can hear me
Many windows have opened before me
The birds seem to sing
“Just wait and see…”
I’ll take the rough with the smooth
And I’ll shoulder what I cannot move
Pushing hard at reality
My eyes are blind but still I see
“…Just wait and see…”
|
||||
8. |
New Dark Age
03:43
|
|||
|
New Dark Age
Winter’s veil
Snow-covered byroads
Thick the air
A poison of colour
Who will come
Now in the silence
Who once was crowned with
Rubies and diamonds?
And hope is hollow
But still I follow
Into the darkness
Of a new age
Hope is hollow
But still I follow
Into the darkness
Of a new age
Into the night
Of a new Dark Age
Stumbling through
An empty marketplace
Life was once
Here for all to see
Now all gone and
No one precedes me
And hope is hollow
But still I follow
Into the darkness
Of a new age
Hope is hollow
But still I follow
Into the darkness
Of a new age
|
||||
9. |
Bloody Saturnalia
05:22
|
|||
|
Bloody Saturnalia
Two figures in white
Walk by the river’s edge
Connected in time, a bloodline
As stubborn as weeds
Lily stalks, white willow and dog-rose
So many loose ends to leave
In the shining age of heroes and gods
We’d run the backroads
’Til we could no more
Now the summer sky
Turns chestnut brown
Heading home
One more time
Yes, the night comes down
Like a corrugated mess
The birds are settling on the roof
Distant fireworks, it’s New Year’s Eve
Crack and fizzle in a Belfast sky
In this strange ward
Where time stands still
And that clock on the wall
Will not mark this disorder
No longer keeping time
No longer keeping time.
|
||||
Nick Carlisle Brighton And Hove, UK
📸 by Aubrey Simpson.
Nick Carlisle is a producer & composer based in Brighton UK. New album "Bloody
Saturnalia" out now, available Digital / Gatefold 180 gram vinyl LP.
"Häxan with Live Score by Nick Carlisle":
28th Jan 2024: The Barbican, London
... more
Nick Carlisle recommends:
Bamboo is Rachel Horwood & Nick Carlisle. The latest Bamboo album "Daughters Of The Sky" was released on the Upset The Rhythm label in 2019.
go to album
Lean Logic is Nick Carlisle & Rose Keeler-Schäffeler. "The Last Mirage" was released 28th May 2021 on O Genesis Recordings.
go to album
What I Did For You
by Katy and Nick
Katy and Nick is a collaboration with Katy Cotterell (Es, Upset The Rhythm). The album "What I Did For You" was released on the Gob Nation label in 2020.
go to albumIf you like Nick Carlisle, you may also like:
As summer gives way to fall, shadowy, mournful electropop from Hante provides the perfect soundtrack to the coming cold.
go to album
Plastic Estate
by PLASTIC ESTATE
New on the excellent label AVANT!, the debut from Plastic Estate is irresistibly shadowy goth pop with dark majesty & grandeur.
go to album
Terrific minimalist synth music from Melbourne, where robotic electronics lock into rigid beats to make a Kraftwerkian wonder.
go to album
