C/Fe Records roster: deciBel, The Still Lifes, MusiM, and AllThisIsMeaningl

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"They Sent Us Their Dreams" is based on The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, a myth about the human condition. The music is noise oriented with a rhythm that almost sounds like artillery, but beneath the beat is the melody which rings through with a sense of hope. While the song may sound sad, it is the story of a proud people learning to deal with change--a change that could have positive effects.

"They Sent Us Their Dreams" is based on a Ray Bradbury novel, a myth about the human condition. I don't really like talking about my lyrics too much. I think they stand as pieces of art without the need of explanation, but I take no issue with dropping a couple of clues for the reader and listener to gain some sort of perspective. The song has two very different versions. It was hard to choose which version would be the album version and which would be the sampler version. Ultimately we chose the version with the more dynamic soundscape for the sampler.

Even before their exhausr contaminated our atmosphere
Long before their pox defiled and disunited our bodies
They sent us their dreams

Before they invaded our wombs and cleared a path for the generations to come
Before they lifted the veil to the undiscoverexd country and opened the door into summer
They sent us their dreams

We sang their songs and performed their plays
We redecorated and made this their home, their place
They infected us with their desires
They sent us their dreams

They looked to the past for us to provide them with our future
They analyzed our petrified remains and reasoned of themselves
The best way to gain their present was to hijack our dreams
They sent us their dreams

The most temporatry of our temporal existence
They injected us one by one with all manner of mental disease
So that we had no choice but to live out their fantasies
They sent us their dreams

Our lives sacrificed on the mechanized altar of progress
Each containing some spark o purpose culmination in their self fashioned future
They sent us their dreams

(They did this through a portal of perception mainlining the future).

1

"Future in Question" was mixed to sound more like a proper song than the intro as it was originally conceived. The lyrics are actually a number of quotes about the future conglomerated into a single work of art. Performed live, the piece becomes more a propaganda tactic than a song.

The song was originally intended as an intro piece, but after such positive audience reactions when performed live, we decided to make it a proper song with the music higher in the mix thereby adding to the atmosphere.

Featuring:JFKennedy/EHoffer/EMaxwell/CSLewis/ANin/WEBDuBois/JMaxwell

The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time. In fact, the future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is. Where there is no hope in the future, there is no power in the present for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today. If you want to know your past, look into you present conditions. If you want to know your future, look into your present actions. In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equiped to deal with a world that no longer exists because change is the law of life. Those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. We do not grow absolutely chronologocally. We grow sometimes in one dimension and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and the future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations. So, fear not for the future. Weep not for the past. Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed times, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the havest and the play time.

6

Sebastian is a very soothing instrumental which is interrupted in the middle of the song by squeaky sounds and a gayageum. The effect paints images in the listeners mind.

"Sebastian Says, 'Checkmate I think'" is primarily Willem's. However, there was enough collaboration involved with a few sounds here and there and a suggestion or two which make it very much a Still Lifes' song. Jonze says the song always reminded him of Blade Runner. So, the title was chosen to reference the scene in the movie which best represents the mood and feel of the song.

4

I tend to stick with simple titles to songs that give aid to the visualization a song while still leaving the imagination open. The word "scrap" when I was in high school was slang for fight, and this song very much denotes a course of rather dramatic events leading up to a fight. The word "scrap" also brings to mind scrap pieces of metal, which some of the opening sounds in the song mimic. And the word "scrap" is also associated with junk or scrap heap, which complements the song's dirty, junk like feel. Also I enjoyed the contradiction between the implication of the word "scrap" and some of the sounds in the song, such as the muffled choir sound at the beginning. Choirs tend to be associated with monks and churches and such, which really creates a nice dynamic for the title "Scrap".

Musically this song came from several places. I had just finished playing the video game "Ico" whose soundtrack absolutely captivated me. It used these muffled, shrill choir sounds for emphasis in the few battles that took place in the game. So I took some choir samples in an old version of Reason and modified them to achieve a similar effect. I improvised the intro and recorded it down. This song was written in either 2006 or 2007 so my memory is a bit foggy in places. I remember intending to place something of an electronic rock beat with accompaniment similar to And One, Funker Vogt, and Feindflug but quite a bit darker. And One always has a great feel for rhythm in their songs and often use these non-constant basslines in sections of their songs that add a nice energy to things. Funker Vogt usually has an entertaining if not overused lead synth. And Feindflug always creates these great marching epic rhytms and melodies. Personally, I think if you go listen to these bands and then Scrap you'll find little to no similarites, but I did find inspiration there.

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Sometimes a relationship can't survive even after CPR.

Spending my days with hospital girls

That look in their eye as desperate pleas unfurl

The I.V. drips on a constant feed

The machines by their side keep a persistent beat

And maybe someday

We can go outside

Where the flowers still bloom

And patients won't die
The sick lights shine on cold marble skin

A sanitary mess and a morphine drip

Though sick in your veins and you can hardly breathe

Will your fake plastic heart ever learn to love me?

And 'til that day

I will stay by your side

'Til death do us part

My dying bride
It's ordinary, quite ordinary, my love

To each his own, and you are my own, my lovely dying girl

It won't be long to be on my own again

It's not extraordinary to move on again, my love

Please forgive me, I can't wait for you to live.

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7

A boy flies home to and asks his girlfriend to meet him at the airport.

After living abroad for several years, long distance relationships, though irritating, become necessary.

Meet me at gate 36

We could have a movie kiss

I will be there waiting for you

Coming in from London

I think that I've been missing something

Could it be that something is you?

And I will bring my guitar

We can make love in the park

Skipping stones and sinking sand

Play our song under the stars
My airliner will be coming in

It will arrive at 8am

It will be like our love was new

Are you the same girl I used to know?

It's been so long I had to go

So many nights of waking up without you

And I will bring my guitar

We can make love in the park

Skipping stones and sinking sand

Play our song under the stars

3

A tribute to the disappointment you feel in the continued failure of a friend when they could save themselves if they only tried.

A close friend of ours destroyed his entire life over a stupid decision. Decision is the main word in that he had every chance to not choose the path he did. In the end he lost not only the things that were important to him, but our, and many others, respect and true friendship.

Your vision is growing dim.
It's the source of my vexation.
With all your lies intertwined,
odds are you won't last long.
You're slipping to an all time low,
and still you won't admit that you're wrong.

You're life is now a soulless entry.
Dying with every heartbeat.
With all your lies intertwined,
you're standing in the high beams.
Pretending - ignorance is bliss.
While sifting through broken daydreams..
You're sifting through broken dreams.

All of your dreams are gone.
There's no one else to blame.
You've left this undone for to long.
Welcome to your ever-after.
All of you're dreams have come.
You've no one else to blame.
Why don't you just sing your song?
Embrace it with every ounce of your shame.

I know that you're smiling now,
but we both see what's underneath.
With all your lies intertwined,
making every action affront.
You're slipping to an all time low,
but I hope that you're waking up.
I hope that you're waking up..

(One day you wake up and see it's passed you by)

All of your dreams are gone.
There's no one else to blame.
You've left this undone for to long.
Welcome to your ever-after.
All of you're dreams have come.
You've no one else to blame.
Why don't you just sing your song?
Embrace it with every ounce of your shame.

2

Instrumental piece about the bitter happiness in being lost.

This song was written largely as a tribute to the Enki Bilal film, 'Immortel'. The instrumental sounds of guitar, bells and symphony is riddled with electronic spurts and pitch shifted noise. This was an attempt at the 'clockwork orange' feel of organic machinery. The keyboards, later added by Beauchamp, perfectly complimented the original demo song, as well as his numerous contributions and adjustments to beat, ambient background and overall song structure. In all truth, I would consider this the present apex of our collaborations together.

5

Examination of how individuals, jealous of someone's stature or relationships, will use lies and treachery to try and destroy their reputation and assume their position in a group. The song also presents a solution of taking the 'higher road' by letting these individuals tear themselves down once everyone begins to see through their lies.

The song was largely inspired by happenings in my local scene. After years of trying to separate my private life from this social group, I began seeing everyone transgressing into rumor fueled scene-sters rather than remaining individuals. If you decide to be part of something then know what you are being a part of: Do not follow blindly.

So caustic, and uncontrolled.
A human parasite - Corrosive.
Self subsistent to make it whole.
Consuming - Depleting all it knows.

Don't admit you envy me.
Can't you see I'm everything?
All the things you wanna be.
All the things you try..
All the things you'll never be...

Give it time and they will see right through you.
Give it time and anxiety consumes you.
Give it time and you will regret what you have said
Give it time and I will watch you break.

Dilute the verity by twisting words.
Assume defensive when the tables turned.
Build your fortress to protect your lies,
a place of solace for you to fume out.
Build those walls to keep the truth outside,
but in the end those walls will be your tomb.

Don't admit you envy me.
Can't you see I'm everything?
All the things you wanna be.
All the things you try..
All the things you'll never be...

Give it time and they will see right through you.
Give it time and anxiety consumes you.
Give it time and you will regret what you have said
Give it time and I will watch you break.

You act like me in fantasy.
You envy me in vanity.
I'm all you see you'll never be.
You can't compare one shred to me.
You try to be to copy me.
Spread your lies but they will see.
You're nothing but a fraud to be
exposed and left in misery.

The more you try and take it,
the more they see you fake it.
My lack of retort you've mistaken,
as someone week and taken.
I just know you can't win,
as long as I don't give in.
As long as I remain myself,
I know that's something...
You'll never be..
You know..
You know..
You'll never be.

Give it time and they will see right through you.
Give it time and anxiety consumes you.
Give it time and you will regret what you have said
Give it time and I will watch you break.