THE TEAR GARDEN
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Release date and tracklist
May 26, 1992
CA CD Nettwerk W2-30074
11 June 2012
NL Remastered MP3 self-released on Bandcamp
- Hyperform – [MP3]
- The Running Man – [MP3]
- Turn Me On, Dead Man – [MP3]
- Romulus And Venus – [MP3]
- The Great Lie – [MP3]*
- Empathy With The Devil – [MP3]*
- Circles In The Sand – [MP3]
- Love Notes & Carnations – [MP3]
- A Ship Named “Despair” – [MP3]
- White Coats And Haloes – [MP3]
- Isis Veiled – [MP3]
- Last Post – [MP3]
- 3-D Technicolour Scrambled Egg Trip Down The Hell-Hole (With Canary) – [MP3]
*tracks 5 and 6 are combined on the Bandcamp release to preserve cross-fade.
Credits
- Edward Ka-Spel
- Cevin Key
- Dwayne R. Goettel
- The Silver Man (Phil Knight)
- Ryan Moore
- David Ogilvie
- Martijn de Kleer
- De Green Guy
edited by Anthony Valcic
cover by Christoph Heemann
Notes
from Bandcamp:
1991.The Pink Dots’ finished a long tour in Vancouver and then the real fun began. The Tear Garden became a big band with this record and the laughter and the sheer intensity just went on for weeks. As psychedelic as it gets… -EKS
There are also comments about individual songs on the Bandcamp page if you click for info.
Reviews
Trying to follow up a successful collaboration had to be just about as tricky as aligning the individual schedules of each of the participants for that sequel — in fact, it took five years to get everyone back together again. Again, the project draws more on Ka-Spel’s strengths and background than on Key’s, turning in a mildly psychedelic electronic soundscape, this time with organic elements like acoustic and electric guitar scattered prominently throughout. It’s a nice effect and it certainly brings broader range to the Tear Garden sound, but at the same time it edges the band closer towards a funked-up electro Pink Floyd. How you react to this fact is up to you. -Sean Carruthers
***
Is there such a thing as retro techno? The new CD by the Tear Garden might be one such recording. This is the first recording in five years for the Tear Garden project, which began as a collaboration between Cevin Key and D’wayne Goettel of Skinny Puppy and vocalist/lyricist Edward Ka-Spel of the Legendary Pink Dots. This time around the other two Pink Dots (The Silver Man and Martyn de Kleer) have joined in on the experimentation. By merging melodic `60s/’70s psychedelia with contemporary technology, the Tear Garden has created a very individualistic piece of work.
The overall mood is one of melancholic introspection through an acid haze. Each piece is loosely jammed, developing into wild, imaginative flights while maintaining a hypnotic flow. The recording touches on a wide variety of styles including pop, psychedelia, ambient and rock. One binding factor is the focus on melody, which is often absent from experimental works. Tracks like “Romulus and Venus” tread the ground of shimmering Brit pop, while “Turn Me On, Dead Man’ sounds like Syd Barrett thrown into the future. On the other hand, “Empathy With The Devil” would fit well onto a techno dance floor and “3D Technicolor Scrambled Egg” sounds like a twisted bit of early Eno ambience. Strangely enough the Tear Garden maintains an identifiable sound throughout which begs for repeated listens. Sure there are many borrowed styles here, but you don’t often hear them brought together quite like this. – Ian Danzig, CMJ
Lyrics
HYPERFORM
Snakebite
Spitting spiders eyes
They swallowed up the night
Cried ‘Meltdown
Zero Marsh of lava’
With supersonic sight
And barriers of you and me
Piled 1500 high
Spread here to there in smoking cans
We blackened out the sky
King met king
We heard the bell
They kicked away the board
Flew headfirst to the bunkers
Then they started out once more
And you and me were born again
As iron plated pawns
We scorched our way through libraries
We shredded all the lawns
‘Til everything was rust and powder
Every stone was turned
And random programmes re-arranged
The areas to burn
The enemy is years ahead
He’s tapped into the phone
He hides beneath the furniture
Knows all the special codes
The enemy’s our destiny
He’s pulling on the cord
He spits a line, I spactic dive
And sell him his reward
I perform
THE RUNNING MAN
Me – I have my cross to bear
It’s twisted, flying through the air
The voices that I hear are muffled
There’s no one left but me to share their secrets
I fix my eyes upon the dials
And run through the uncharted miles of nothing
I chase my tail
I’m chasing trails of hollow promises
And it’s lonely here
I’m kept alive (somehow)
I stay tranquilised
I leave – I never quite arrive
Your previous smile is fading
I’d love to think that there’s an end
Just waiting right around the bend
(Keep falling)
Every turn’s a tunnel
I descend
I’m the Running Man
TURN ME ON DEAD MAN
I snared you in a photograph
I trapped you on a wire
I amplified you, magnified you
1500 times
You strode across the ocean
And you smiled to careful drivers
Swooping low, you’d just say “no”
And though you never showed
I know you’re still alive
Turn me on, my dead man
Give me a little sign
Turn me on, dead man
Gimme ‘nother line
I still watch all your videos
My bedroom is your shrine
On Fridays all the guys
Will get together in the ghetto
In the pits
Howling epilipso fits
I swing my hips
I mime
Yes, I can feel your kick inside
Turn me on, my dead man
When you feel the time is right
Will you rejoin me as a king
With medallions and rings
And stairway things that lead from heaven
Will you give me back my innocence?
Will you paint the black sky blue?
Just like your shoes
I’ll keep my distance
My respect
You choose the hour
I’ll be there
Turn me on, dead man
ROMULUS AND VENUS
Everything you gave me
Lies within a trunk
Within a drawer
I burned one hundred photographs
Or more
I fled across the ocean
With another face
Another name
Nothing but my soul
Remained the same
But still you came
With cases
I was forced to let you stay
You bought the locks
The box in which I lay
I tried to get away from you
I tried to make a break
You always see right through me
There’s no escape
I can still remember you with cornets
White horses
I would run behind
You’d flash the sign
I dived just to serve you
But night-time turned the lady
To a girl again
You’d slip away
You tried to kiss my tears away
Pretend there was no day to take me down
Nightshade, blades, Niagra Falls
I tried them all six times
But you would always run behind me
And you’d find me
Keep me on a leash
On a line
I’m uncomfortably resigned
There’s no release ’til you untie me
Deny me!
I tried to get away from you
THE GREAT LIE
No transcription available
What if they made it all up
Four guys, two thousand years ago
Over wine and cigarettes
They had this great idea
[?]
How long is it going to last?
[?]
What if they made everything up?
What are you doing here?
What are you doing here?
What are you doing here?
[?]
EMPATHY WITH THE DEVIL
My flavour is the stuff of locusts
Hot chili firebrand
Spurting volcano teeth
Bleeding skies, sulphur mines
The foul breath of Satan’s favourite gutter worm
You feel me when I’m close
An ice wind of steel stilettos
Hammered in your spine
Quicksilver nausea spinning
Spewing forth and everything’s a mess
Every possession you ever had
Wrecked – lying at your feet
Telegrams that tell you God is dead
Piled high on the T.V.
The incessant T.V.
Burbling
Distorted
A cheesecake nun advertising
20 brands of sea cow lemon shit
In 60 different languages
A gargoyle handjives
For the hard of hearing
Subliminals
Criminals
Phoney businessmen in thick-rimmed glasses
Bad comedians
Laughing bags aping the Hallelujah Chorus
The forgotten version
Out of key (slightly)
Just enough to annoy you
My flavour is cheap perfume
On rotting Man-Ray maggots!
Dead maggots!
My flavour’s a wound re-opening by
surprise
Green fishes eyes flowing out
Wriggling things
Gelatinous
Still alive and screaming
Out of key (slightly)
Just enough to annoy you
My flavour’s a plunging elevator
A mili-second before it hits the cellar
A cellar with mutated rats
Old – very old lost teeth
Abortions, garbage
So pungent it hums
Out of key (slightly)
Just enough to annoy you
My flavour’s your flavour
Deep within you
Hidden
Waiting to get out
CIRCLES IN THE SAND
Deydrated,
Slightly decomposed
A wishing stone thrown hopeless
To a mirage
Liquid blue
Just like your dying eyes
I sympathise
I carry you
We are making circles in the sand
A happy stay, we can’t delay
LOVE NOTES AND CARNATIONS
I sit and watch your silhouette,
I wonder what you’re doing
Who you’re with
If you’re thinking of me now
Was I just a passing phase?
Did we ever really share?
Did we just soliloquise –
Was I ever really there?
If I leave this sheltered space
Will anything be there?
Disinfected, disconnected
Waiting in my cage for you to call
Am I living in a cage
With all the comforts I created
When I want you here
All you do is close the blinds
And leave me crying to a shadow
Locked behind a glass
That shuts me out
That cuts me down
Memories are fading
Surely something slowly burns
Don’t you yearn for just a replay for a day?
A SHIP NAMED DESPAIR
Stowaway
Starless
Washed down by an uncaring tide
Blown away
Heartlessly crossed out
For snaring a ride
On a ship named Despair
I shoot flares in the night
But nobody’s there
I don’t care
I’ve no conscience
My memory died
On the day I gazed into
Your faraway eyes
WHITE COATS AND HALOES
Watch your step!
They’re all out spying
Catch your breath
They crawl like lions
I’m flying!
I’m flying!
I’m diving
Peacemeal
Perservative-free
No artificial colouring
No fleas
No flesh
No trash
No cans of cancer
Tropical disease
I’m clean
Take a bite
I’m tasting amber
Strike a light
I leave December
ISIS VEILED
They’re closing in
I switched the pictures
Painted all the walls
I hung the medals
Hid the magazines
As caped crusaders crawled
Down Freedom Street
Guns of Liberation
Ushered in the dawn
One guy wears an eyepatch
While the other wears a tie
One will play the liberator
One will run and hide
I hear the cannons crack a mile
Down Freedom Street
Out of sight
Out of mind
The ninth wave claimed a thousand
While another thousand fled
I’m getting low on beans and marmalade
I share my bed with locust girl
She flies
Through the cracks across my head
She is always on my side
She’s always on my side
I am always on your side
I’m always on your side
We are on your side
Shhhhhhhhhhhh
There, there
LAST POST
I’d like to think of angels
We discussed a happy end
A place with lemon slices
On a shore with voilins
Five star waters
Crates of kill cow wine
On a night of steaming sin
It’s out there, somewhere
I would bet your missing shoe
Bet my Geiger counter too
Wishing you…HAPPY DAZE!
