Shadow Weaver

THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS

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Cover ImageRelease date and tracklist

1992
BE/US LP/CS Play It Again Sam BIAS225

side a

  1. Zero Zero
  2. Guilty Man
  3. Ghosts Of Unborn Children – [MP3]
  4. City Of Needles

side b

  1. Stitching Time
  2. Twilight Hour
  3. The Key To Heaven
  4. Laughing Guest

BE/US CD Play It Again Sam BIAS225

2001
US CD Cacciocavallo CAD22
US CD Soleilmoon 04258
***
Cover Image2006
PL CD Big Blue  SPVL-0052

  1. Zero Zero
  2. Guilty Man
  3. Ghosts Of Unborn Children – [MP3]
  4. City Of Needles
  5. Stitching Time
  6. Twilight Hour
  7. The Key To Heaven
  8. Laughing Guest
  9. Prague Spring – [MP3]
  10. Leper Colony – [MP3]

29 May 2012
NL Remastered MP3 self-released on Bandcamp

  1. Zero Zero
  2. Guilty Man / Ghosts Of Unborn Children – [MP3]*
  3. City Of Needles
  4. Stitching Time / Twilight Hour*
  5. The Key To Heaven
  6. Laughing Guest
  7. Prague Spring – [MP3]
  8. Leper Colony – [MP3]

* tracks are combined to preserve cross-fades

***

22 June 2018

US CD/LP Metropolis Records

CD

  1. Zero Zero
  2. Guilty Man – Ghosts Of Unborn Children
  3. City Of Needles
  4. Stitching Time – Twilight Hour
  5. The Key To Heaven
  6. Laughing Guest
  7. Prague Spring
  8. Leper Colony
  9. Stitching Time First Version

LP

DISC 1

  1. Zero Zero
  2. Guilty Man – Ghosts Of Unborn Children
  3. City Of Needles
  4. Stitching Time – Twilight Hour

DISC 2

  1. The Key To Heaven
  2. Laughing Guest
  3. Prague Spring
  4. Leper Colony
  5. Stitching Time First Version (Instrumental)
  6. A Dead Sea Scroll

Credits

  • Edward Ka-Spel– voice, keyboards
  • The Silverman– Keyboards, devices, effects, percussion
  • Niels van Hoornblower- Saxophone, flute, electric wind instruments
  • Martijn de Kleer- Guitars, drums
  • Ryan Moore- Bass, drums, percussion
  • Vincent Hoedt- Engineer
  • Raymond Steeg (X-Ray Alley)- Engineer
  • Patrick Q-Wright- guest violin and viola

 

Notes

from Bandcamp:
Shadow Weaver Parts 1 & 2 were recorded over the space of a year with a vault full of extra material in the can and sessions with special guests Steven Stapleton (Nurse With Wound) and former Dot Patrick Q.Paganini. There was even one impromptu session with Charles Hayward who delivered a brilliant solo show in The Dots’ home town.

This remaster was made in May 2012.

Press Release

Sometimes the SHADOW WEAVER even doubts his own existence. THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS’ twelfth album, SHADOW WEAVER, is part one of a two-part series which explores the psychic inner world of the album’s central character – any resemblance to Camus’ “Nausea” is purely unintentional. EDWARD KA-SPEL’S singular capacity to trace the mystical journey of the SHADOW WEAVER is, as always, matched perfectly by the DOTS’ mastery of psychedelic sound designs.   For over a decade the DOTS have continued to quietly evolve and reinvent themselves.

Ten years ago, they relocated from London’s East End to the liberal confines of Amsterdam where the lineup continually changes depending on each record’s particular focus. On SHADOW WEAVER the DOTS are a five piece: THE SILVERMAN plays keyboards, NIELS VAN HOORNBLOWER blows horns, MARTIJN DE KLEER plays guitar, RYAN MOORE handles the bass duties and the DOTS’ heart and spirit EDWARD KA-SPEL (The Prophet Qa-Sepel) sings and plays keyboards. Over time the DOTS have moved further away from their electronic-based origin as organic instruments knit rich yet fragile tapestry that furthers KA-SPEL’S vision of THE TERMINAL KALEIDOSCOPE and comes at a time when the band’s primary influences — Can, Faust, Neu and Meddle-era Pink Floyd — are finding a new audience of both musicians and fans.

Metropolis Records- 2018:
THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS’ classic Shadow Weaver is now presented in a 2018 Remasted & Expanded version. Reflecting the DOTS moving away from their electronic-based origin, organic instruments knit rich yet fragile tapestry throughout. Still as vital & relevant as band’s primary influences — Can, Faust, Neu & Meddle-era Pink Floyd, Shadow Weaver shows the bands mastery of psychedelic sound designs.

Review

Led by the mind and voice of Edward Ka-Spel (who released a solo record on Third Mind/Emergo earlier this year), the Dots never stagnate with one idea or one sound, and even on their 12th record, the band evolves like a tributary flowing into a river that contributes to the sea. The first half of a two-pad series, Shadow Weaver is the most traditionally instrumentated record the Dots have made, with horns, bass, guitar, etc. as the driving force pushing the music down a road of synthesizer atmospheres. There is slow but constant movement, the album drifting to ponder the pretty things as well as the horrid. Forever esoteric, the Dots deal with many misconceptions; many people classify the band as new wave or new age, but the Dots are not so easily definable. This record captures every part of psychedelia: the primitive cult power of Psychic TV, the sex of Funkadelic, the rockadelic of Can and King Crimson, and the atmospheric of Pink Floyd. Then they add the ethnic touches from the Renaissance and Middle East, softly weaving it together with an inconceivable strangeness, making for a bewitching record. – Christina Zafiris, CMJ

Lyrics

Zero Zero

We checked out all the prophecies. We studied fat philosophies. We made a graph… We chanted ooooommmmm “ommni Padhni Disney Iceman Acme leary Marx Illuminatus Christus Clarke…” We’d watch for saucers in the dark. We’d hunt lost arks; tried splitting quarks – when all we wanted was a Mark. Just a something proving something’s out there. Are you listening? No chance.

There never is a way without a why. Do we return after we die? Is life a circle? Are we hurtled headfirst into space? Will we wind up as the bunch of grapes that makes the wine… that Christ exchanged for water. Are we blood? Are we lime? Do you live? We need a sign – is anybody there? Are you listening?

And still the statues cry, the queen bee flies… we try our damndest to explain the reasons why and how and when and where… we’re getting nowhere. No doors deep inside this corridor of space and time… if space and time exist. Oh we’ll persist, if we exist. Are you listening?

Guilty man

All wired up with no-one to kick but myself in a cell and an ape with a stick who’s bigger than me and complains that he’s sick of my story. They spy on me. They spike my tea… Deny my pleas for a shower, a shave. I’m a shambles, a slave. They’re digging my grave. There’s no name on… the blame’s on. I’m guilty. Guilty man’s got loaded dice. Guilty man can’t pay the price. Guilty man, he’s got no friends. Guilty man, it never ever ends. But the voice in the wall says it’s in my head yet there’s bars on the windows. I’m tied to the bed. When the clock hammers 12 on All Sufferer’s Night, hungry deathbirds from Hell have a feast on my eyes. I roll boulders up mountains. I hang on a cross – the original sinner, I’m counting the cost. Come on, bill me! I’m guilty.

Ghosts of Unborn Children

Did you hear me crying in the night that lasts forever? Did you see me reaching out from Never Never Land? The kingdom of the blind, the damned; a bitter man; an also-ran. The ghosts of unborn children stretch their hands and clutch at nothing… Preconceived. Part of the plan that makes no sense and casts no shadow, no reflection in your mirror. Hiding right beneath your eyes… but so difficult to find, you gave up long before you started. What I’d give to be alive for just one second…

City of Needles (transcribed by Alan Ezust)

[I made my best guess for some of them – it’s open to revision]

resplendant on my bed of nails with laser light, my peep show i can see the serpent lady peeping through my perforations

cold as knives, revolving on five icepicks clockwise sliced hey, sailor, come on by and sit in my cocoon sixteen minutes on rotorblades a simulation swim-in pool bloody cracks your invention, their pursuasion, my perversion

take a light speed spin down headless hole and feel the deprivation ???? red-hot pokers in the eyes yet we guarantee you’ll all survive

you’ll meet your fear, and see it’s bigger, so much bigger than you feared you’ll need your fear, and see it’s bigger, so much bigger than you feared you’ll feed your fear, and see it’s bigger, so much bigger than you feared

Stitching Time

I shaved off my hair cos I found it amusing, I faked my despair in the beautiful ruins. I wailed at the wall, tossed a coin in the fountain – now dry as the sand on a dead man’s bones. High dive from a cloud, take a roll down a mountain. I rise in a shroud and I sleep when I’m counting. I shed my disguise when there’s nobody looking. The whites of your eyes are all mine alone. And I’m written in stone. I’m the dust on your carpet. A guest in your home because that’s where the heart is. Try and fly on the wind, though you’ll find I’m the fastest. I’m always let in, but I dine alone. Rest assured I’ll survive though I’ll thrive on your danger. I’ll arrive as your friend but I’ll leave as the stranger. I’m open for bribes, in the end I will wager you’ve nothing to buy but some time alone. The rules of the game are all mine for the making. You’ll cheat all the same but you’re mine for the taking. There’s no special favours and no-one forsaken. I live for you all, but I’ll die alone.

Twilight Hour

Slave-chained, half-naked, along for the ride. Catching flies with my eyes shut, my mouth’s open wide. But I curse as the bugs bite, I spit with the tide – like to fly to the next world – it’s just out of sight. I’m sick of the same scene, I’m tired of this road. Howling oaths at the cruel sea that creeps ’round my toes and I’m thinking of you, my regret overflows; but sleep softly my dear one cos you’ll never know. I swear by the rings round the admiral’s eyes this albatross stings like a sword in my side. And this boat’s going to sink and we’re all gonna die… But sleep softly my dear one, I’ll keep it inside.

The Key To Heaven

They recycled all the cripples; resurrected all the dead. In a technicolour sundown, they had ’em standing on their heads. Now they’re propping up our front line, but behind them is a plague. Maybe the whole shit finished months ago, but they just forgot to say… And I’m proud to say I made it – sweet 16 and I’d like to share a glass, but this rot wine turns my inside out and I can’t drink it through this mask… You remember how it started – all the liberation stuff; how the man would tip his beret – he was really one of us. My milk turned to Mecca, my face fell to the floor. I think I’ve found the key to Heaven, but I cannot find the door.

Laughing Guest

I’m out of space; I can’t see for the people. Squashed in a case where we’re all created equal. Somewhere they’re laughing, they’re planning the sequel… They come from the stars, then they all went home.

Leper Colony

Does my eye offend you? Should I roll it down the hill… Should I wear an iron mask or warn you with a bell? In quarantine, I stay unseen – I still know how to feel. And though you never touch me, I am sure nothing ever touches you. You’ve no need to defend your actions I can understand. My mirror wept “surrender”, so I threw in both my hands, before I just conceded I can’t figure in your plans. Though I’ll never touch you, you’ll be sure nothing ever touches me. I shrivel when the sun comes out, I cry beneath the moon. You’ll find me in a long lost alley, hiding in my “room”. But don’t you dare come near me cos I don’t know what I’ll do… If someone ever touched me, maybe I could just consider touching you…

 

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