Get all 17 Alternate Audio releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Theatre Works, Music for Adventure, Schwarzer Kaffee Remix EP, Dreamcaster, VioLiebe, Grey City Life, Recollections, Dawnlight Reflections, and 9 more.
1. |
Madness
04:19
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They say, the man who mocked the gods
Became the heavenly jester,
And walked among celestial shores
With a mien of grief and lust.
Yet every day at eventide
He was summoned to the vesper
With his thoughtful frown to raise their hearts
And notions to make them laugh.
It was nectar, ambrosia, golden calf,
Red light, blue velvet, soft muzak;
When he heard a voice apart,
Sounding through the stifling sough:
‘Of all the things to mock - he chose the gods.’
They say that day the thorn was struck
And inward turned his ire,
The quiet venom nestled deep
And nurtured his desire.
O mockingbird, thy blazing plumes
Will soon crumble to ashes,
O mockingbird, thy fiery fumes
Will only render you with sadness.
Of all the things to bear - yours will be madness!
But the ethereal machinery
In this pond’rous, profound scenery
Revelled at whim’s dim revery
- Just juggernauts at play.
Plutonian flair, Plutosian things,
Ashen bonds and diamond rings,
Olympus’ air won’t bear his wings.
Tomorrow eats today.
Leaping from the vault’s abyss
In a vast redeeming blaze
He takes the step beyond the cliff
And into Earth’s embrace.
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2. |
A Gentleman Robot
02:45
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A gentleman robot and a lady of glass
Were strolling through the streets of a vernal day,
The sun was blue and the sky was out,
Some puppet strings hung sparkling from their brains.
In heaven sits a father with a master’s degree,
A softly glowing halo round his edge
He holds a voice of thunder and he holds the master key,
But right now he’s playing with marionettes.
And he lets go of a handle and the robot drops his bag,
He turns a hidden knob, the lady smiles,
And with cautious apprehension and a sudden burst of tension-
Lo! He twists his wrinkled hands, a stroke, he dies.
A gentleman robot turns to his lady of glass,
A subtle scent of flowers in the breeze,
A spark in his eye and with relief he says:
‘I dropped the bag of things I didn’t need.’
And the cars were honking harmonies, the wind whistled astray,
The sun rolled in the skies and roared with laughter.
He took her icy hand, and wiped the tears off her face.
They lived/died happily ever after.
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3. |
Time Bank
03:08
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4. |
Hypersleep
05:02
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There’s a lady in the East who rides with dawn
And with rosy-fingered ease she sets the sky ablaze.
Once a temple to the eye, now she flies alone,
But I wonder, is she really just a flare in space?
Distant bells of different days reverberate
For what is truth when she’s away?
And when turbid drops of acid rain fall upon a withering soil,
Fostering a sterile grain of slavery and toil,
When dark winds seam the misty streets of agony and pain,
Is she not crying – or is it simply rain?
Distant bells of different days toll beneath her sight
Trying to | chase the broken fragments of a story.
Keepers guard at open gates, labyrinth’s ignite
As she shines eternal light on toneless glory.
Distant bells, you toll within.
Nothing drowns the beat of the machine.
Running round in spirals of opportunity
Singing with the Sirens’ vapid harmony
Fear and guilt still dripping from the fingertips
Worshipping the moon’s light and the sun’s eclipse.
But the sun don’t care, all the inert stars just shine
And the universe shrugs its shoulders and goes by.
Hear the bell tolls on, the dirge’s distant chime
The hourglass is running thin with crimson sands of time.
Another day is dawning under a newborn sun,
Another star is yawning, another turn is done.
Another world is dying and others are to come
Under a fat and brazen sun.
I wonder how much more’s to come
Under the fat and brazen sun.
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5. |
Spaceship
04:21
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The other day I looked inside a soul
It lay spread out on the tarmac, pale and dirt.
On one of its antennas stood ‘control’,
The other was inscribed with ‘harder work’.
And I understood it lived up to that dream
And one day it’ll all be good and wealthy,
But I don’t know, still somehow it did seem
That all this fiddling with the brain is quite unhealthy...
Then I went down to a shop on chaos square
Following a trail of slime and folly,
And I found a rather sluggish person there
With his personality inside his trolley.
And the counter woman said ‘What will it be?
We’ve got all common costumes on display!
It’s 20 percent off individuality
And you look like you could need another way.’
I said ‘I think I need a spaceship,
I need to go far away,
I don’t think I’m needed here no more.
I think I need a spaceship,
And I’m already late
And when I’m gone, make sure you close the door.’
Now I know, there are millions of opinions
And I can’t really tell their scopes and ranges.
But what applies for masters and for minions
They all give their vote and nothing changes.
So everyone assembled and in line,
Everything in place and all with purpose,
For all is good and everything is fine
As everyone attends the mundane circus.
Then I fell into a trans-dimensional hole
And popped out before a vibrant mixture:
Plasma wobbled, honeyed voices trolled,
When I heard somebody yell: ‘Get out the picture!’
I turned round and saw a languid face,
Quadruple eyes met in a stern collision.
I said ‘Look man, I just got wormhole-popped away –‘
But he said ‘I don’t care, I’m watching television.’
I think I need a spaceship,
I need to go far away,
I don’t think I’m needed here no more.
I think I need a spaceship,
Think I overstayed,
And when I’m gone, make sure you close the door.
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Alternate Audio Austria
Independent label for quality wayward underground music. Based in Austria.
www.alternateaudio.net
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