This was the first of Skinny Puppy’s ongoing splinter projects, featuring both cEvin Key and Dwayne Goettel teamed up with Edward Ka-Spel of the Legendary Pink Dots…a veritable industrial supergroup. With Key and Goettel handling all of the music and Ka-Spel taking care of the lyrics and vocals, it mixes together to create a dreamy electronic mix that owes something to both Puppy and the Dots, but is nonetheless totally different. Think Pink Floyd on a scary acid trip and you’re getting close. “You and Me and Rainbows” is monolithic at nearly 17 minutes, but it’s worth every second. The CD reissue adds the Tear Garden EP at the end.

With love to the ladies sunshine
We will pour our jars in reservoirs

Bandcamp:
1987.  Ek had opened for Skinny Puppy on a life-changing coast to coast US /canada tour. Literally a bombardment for the senses, the emotions were poured into this recording just after the conclusion of the voyage. Several pieces only asked for a vocal to be put into place while “You and me and rainbows” was mapped out and realized in the space of a day and a night.  It was the second time Tear Garden had entered Mushroom Studios. The first results can be heard on the TG EP which is represented as the last 3 bonus tracks on this extended album.

on You and Me and Rainbows:
The part where Ogre delivers the words features a tape of miniscule cut-ups created by EK who had overworked the pause button on a cassette deck.Incredibly Dwayne once took a seat and accurately identified these miniscule snippets with an 80% success rate.
“Rainbows” was conceived on a nightliner on it’s way to DC on a rainy night after a canceeled show in Trenton, new jersey.

on Center Bullet:
First ever recording of TG. The music was actually a bonus track on a Skinny Puppy cassette; the lyrics were written somewhere over Greenland on a jumbo jet.  Much made of ’89’s a good year”- it refers to the blood spilled during The French Revolution.

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Review

This album was produced around the same time as Skinny Puppy’s “Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse” and the two albums share very similar sonic characteristics. Skinny Puppy had grown out of the dark Synth-Pop scene (often mis-nomered Industrial though they sounded nothing like those bands) and by ’86 they had developed a super-clean masterful sound that should have hit the top of the charts in the US but never quite made it (mostly due to poor promotion). * This album is a slightly more experimental and laid back version of the same brilliance that appears on “Mind” mainly due to the absence of Ogre’s vocals and the addition of Edward Kaspell’s. * cEvin Key’s music shines in compliment to Edward Kaspell’s dreamy voice (his voice is reminiscent of Peter “Bauhuas” Murphy’s, but he is by no means a copycat). Gone are Ogre’s tortured demon vocals (except on one part of “You and Me and Rainbows” which is quite jarring) and Key’s music takes on a totally different vibe without Ogre’s agression. * Many of the Puppy tracks on “Mind” like “Antagonism” and “One Time One Place” “musically” sound virtually identical to this Tear Garden album (the Tear Garden is just a little slower in tempo and a little less dance oriented), but Kaspell’s vocals add a dreamy magic that puts “Tired Eyes” in a whole ‘nother world. * This album is easily one of my all time favourites and it is a MUST-HAVE for any fan of dark electronic music. And if you do enjoy this album, I also suggest buying Puppy’s “Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse” as they are so similar in sound. – Unknown from Amazon

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Lyrics

DEJA VU

It was a cold November evening and I should have worn a coat
I shivered
Waiting for the ferry boat to carry me to you
Could see you dancing in the harbour lights; your hair an orange flame
You’d turn away, swing on a crane
Always quite the same

The same!
The same!
It’s always quite the same
Rewind!
Re-live it all
Again and again

You’d tiptoe halfway across a rooftop, drop headfirst in the river
You’d stretch out for a helping hand
And once again I’d stand there
Not close enough to touch, but I heard you call my name
As you died
And the ferry boat?
It never did arrive …

The same!
The same!
It’s always quite the same
Rewind!
Re-live it all
Again and again

ROOM WITH A VIEW

The hunter lines his trophies up across his wall, beneath his bed
A tiger’s head, a snakeskin rug, slugs in a jug
The bugs make halos ’round the phone
He’d call his friends to come around
They’d all get stoned when he pulled old Medusa moaning from a sack
She poses then she cracks their mirror shades
It’s just her way
He lets her play a while then throws her back
Then they all go fishing in the reservoir

I see
I see from my room
I see from my room with a view
I see
I see from my room
I see from my room with a view

My room’s nothing special
All the furniture is old
They smashed up all my windows
So it’s cold
I told city hall to build a wall
To stop the outside coming inside
But they’ve stalled

I’m lord of this manor but it’s 30 feet across
And falling fast; I sprawl in plaster, bricks and garbage
Through the ceiling
I see blue – I see you!

I see
I see from my room
I see from my room with a view
I see
I see from my room
I see from my room with a view

COMA

He’d seen her twice before but not forgotten
She’d dabbed his head with cotton wool and
Pulled the sheets up round his shoulders told him
“Try to sleep, to dream…”
He’d dream of her in white, floating in the river
And he shivered as he swam to save her, find it’s just too late

He simply lost the will to live, to love again
He had a fever…

They laid him on a bed, and dead of night she’d come again
And dab his head with cotton wool, pulled the sheets up round his shoulders
Told him, “Try to sleep, to dream…”

VALIUM

Sometimes he was playful and he’d roll a ball – she’d fetch it
And she rolled. They’d ball
She’d grin, she’d bear it
Closed her eyes and thought of processed peas, the price of cheese
And adverts on T.V.
So he’d squeeze a little harder – ’til it hurt

And she thought of scars, she thought of burns; across her arms
A bursting heart and burning hate
There’s always hate. There’s always pain

A creeping stain across the linen that she’d lie in
Night out, night in
Every night the same
They’d stay in – saying nothing

She thought of knives, of paraffin around his chair
A careless cigarette
Forget it! He said how she had to keep things clean
(Lick the carpet, dust the dog)
You have to keep things clean!
(Mow the windows, shine the socks)
Oh you’ve got to keep things clean

OO EE OO

Somewhere in the desert there’s a hole
Where the water’s running hot and cold
And no-one ever goes there at all
We can find it if we try, we can hide out
‘Til the time is right to ride out

We will pour our jars in the reservoirs
And turn the world off –
Paint the sky a shade of orange – ’cause that’s how I like sunsets

Oo-ee-oo

YOU AND ME AND RAINBOWS

You’re number eight
Your name is Jane
With black hair, braids
And black lines around your eyes
Shades to hide your habit
I don’t know your age
Though you guessed mine
My sign. Your sign!
The opening line is always just the same
The same intention, destination
You and me and rainbows

Loaded guns attract
We know the rules
We don’t react.
We wait in hope, we don’t expect –
You and me and rainbows

Down here everything is fine
We have a straw, we have a line
We have a bag of rock hard mountains
With a string of shepherds driving lions
Aiming skewers at the sheep
Face down, asleep
In onion fields

The frying fields
The worms…
They peep through holes which once were eyes
They thrive
They bake although we painted out the sky
The sun…
There’s only thunder
And you and me and rainbows

Let’s hide out in the lay-by
Let the time fly by
Tonight’s disguise
A car crash with our wheels like shattered stars
Dashboard charred
Our windscreen like a graveyard for the flies
(We’re fast!)
The hungry flies are circling, mourning
As the watchers squat with cameras, cakes and flasks
They’re spying
Spitting as the blue light flashes
Axes, axes, axes swing!
(We’re broken)
Broken wings,but sure we’ll fly
And reach our destination
You and me and rainbows

And if we turn the lights down low
And watch the sky cry through the window
Will I watch your fingers grow
And stretch like butterflies?
The shadows flexing
Licking toes, and blinding as slowly
The sun sets on the same old hill
The same red glow
We’re quite alone
Just you and me and rainbows

Everything I own is in the corner of your room
It’s covered with a sheet just like it died –
But I will take a broom
I’ll sweep it new again, arrange it
Oh, I’ll grow a dozen hands
No I never will neglect my world again
I’m safe beneath my blanket
Come home…
For you
For me… and rainbows

Loaded guns attract
We know the rules
We don’t react
We wait in hope
We don’t expect
Just you and me and rainbows
Looking down

THE CENTRE BULLET

*Transcribed by Alan Ezust and Jon Drukman
and other members of the Cloud-Zero mailing list.

Dead shot through the temple
In the temple heard the preacher screech!
I bored you full of holes, Lucretia
Saw you crease up in a ball
As if you swallowed your own poison
Followed as you crawled up to the altar

I watched the tabernacle choir
Bawling in a bath of sacramental wine
You laced it, but it tastes just fine to me!
Yes, it’s 89 – it’s a good year
Let’s hear it now for good old (bittersweet) ’89
Let’s hear it now for good old ’89

We took our seats, we watched them
Stringing up a chicken
(Kept on kicking)
As they kicked away the chair
They fed it strychnine!

We kept on staring, sick and sordid
As you pulled another bullet from my belt and fired!
Count to nine
(Ninety nine)
Count to nine

I caught it in my teeth
I licked it clean
I chewed it
I chewed it
Struck a match
I flew a dozen stories to my stool
Behind a widow
Sure I’m small, but I’m big enough
I’m big enough to send a bullet through your head

A bullet through the center of your head!
I’ll send a bullet through the center of your head
Center bullet… Rent a bullet…

OPHELIA

*Transcribed by Alan Ezust and Jon Drukman
and other members of the Cloud-Zero mailing list.

Crawling through a minefield
We never saw the signs
The lightning flashes
Thunder claps

Oh is it just a dream, Ophelia?

Saw the dark clouds rolling
Scavengers evolving
As we made love on a log in the fog

Is it just a dream, Ophelia?

There was just a hint of searchlight
It illuminates a pair of lonely souls locked together

Is it just our dream, Ophelia?

Trying hard to hide
To motor clean
But rolling for a gallery of eyes
Watching, bleeding

Is it just our dream, Ophelia?

And love is blind
It cracks its stick
Across our fingers
Makes us bleed
It makes us sick!

Is it just our dream, Ophelia?

And the water’s boiling
But the need is strong
And we have to swim
To find an island
Find a log
That maybe we’ll call home

Our home, Ophelia

We think that we can make it on our own

Our dream, Ophelia

THE TEAR GARDEN

*Transcribed by Alan Ezust and Jon Drukman
and other members of the Cloud-Zero mailing list.

Our lady on the balcony in black and red
The band plays stronger
Spinning back
We tread on broken glass
Our heels dig harder

I circle ’round inside your belt
I felt your heart race faster
Our eyes met with the eyes
Fixed in the sky

All seeing, knowing, probing
To the bottom of our souls
On tear garden

You shivered
We cowered in the corner
We watch the arms go flying rigid
Heard them call his name again
Pressed our hands to our ears
We waited for the rain

Waiting for the gentle rain to fall
On tear garden

MY THORNY THORNY CROWN

*Transcribed by members of the Cloud-Zero mailing list.

A trip to the insomnian in chains
They licked his cranium
Sunk wires in his brains
He stayed the same
Too old to change
He watched the world fall down on Tuesdays
He smelled the angel trail
But he’s just a snail
He counted to six hundred…
one, two, three, four, five, six
seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven
twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen
seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty… forty eight