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THE BIG EVERYTHING - EP (Part 2B of the C​.​O​.​C​.​T. Trilogy)

by BABAL

/
  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    GATEFOLD SLEEVE WITH LYRIC SHEET AND ARTWORK BY ANDY WHITE AND PAUL KOPAL . Bonus item with the CD - a full colour A4 print of the front cover "Face Melt" by Andy White plus a BABAL MYSTERY ITEM - A NEW TRACK "CENTRE DEAD"- WE ARE OFFERING THIS AS A BONUS TRACK TO THOSE WHO HAVE BOUGHT "THE BIG EVERYTHING" EP. IT WILL NOT APPEAR ON PART 3 OF THE C.O.C.T. TRILOGY ALBUM "(I'M JUST A) SPIRIT IN A MEAT SUIT" AND WILL APPEAR ON A LATER ALBUM. THIS IS A DEMO VERSION AND YET TO BE FINALLY MIXED AND MASTERED BUT WE LOVE IT!! X
    lyrics
    Centre Dead.
    He'd always been a man of legendary excess, washing off the freaks, the ghosts, the earth, the darkness.
    His expression was strangely dislocated.
    It zigzagged like a bolt of black lightning.
    He was listening to the boom of his heart in his head.
    The house is falling down; he said.
    So get out while you can, get out while you can,
    Fake and fragile are the walls,
    Swooning stucco lined with souls.
    He was dead centre; centre dead and left for living
    Came to light on scented pages
    The dead man's' house is where she rages!
    So get out while you can, she screamed
    Come collect the crazy man; on his back, he's in a trance,
    The drums of fate design his dance
    The drums of fate design his dance.

    Karen Langley (copyrighted material)
    credits
    releases February 28, 2019
    MUSIC AND LYRICS: ROB WILLIAMS & KAREN LANGLEY
    KAREN LANGLEY - VOCALS
    ROB WILLIAMS - GUITARS/BASS/SYNTHESIS
    JON SHARP - DRUMS
    RECORDED 4.11.2018 AT BABAL KASTEL
    license
    all rights reserved

    If you live in North or South America click here mrrmusic.com/babal/ to purchase and save on shipping costs from Europe

    Includes unlimited streaming of THE BIG EVERYTHING - EP (Part 2B of the C.O.C.T. Trilogy) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ... more
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    edition of 75 

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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1.
The Big Everything Hey, I wanna experience the big everything, the big top and the great abyss.....not miss one thing. Hey I wanna experience the big everything, how it feels to be tall; flowing through the bodies, warm and singing. Hey I wanna experience the big everything, when its’ silent marching fingers pull out the stops and stop talk forever, and the tongues listen..... That’s a feeling I wanna buy into, that’s a moment I wanna lean into, that’s a gift I wanna open slowly, that’s an everything covered, time to remember...that’s happening now... Watching; watching; not acting. She switched into survival mode; watching; not believing. She turned away, finding the exit; watching, not feeling. Many choices across time; embedded; I chose other views; most views benefit from contour, sweep and variety. Views are no trifling matter, endorsed by the rear slopes, wide bays, beaches and seas. The spectacle is overlooked. Alive with hope at dawn; loss is the distant view, with a clear boundary. One minute almost a playground, one minute almost a playground, one minute almost a playground. A geological mishap leaving a raw wound. We are in a different world, we are in a different world, we are in a different world; One where we must find solace, solace, solace, solace..... Yet each is in harmony with the other, yet each is in harmony with the other, yet each is in harmony with the other; One minute almost a playground, one minute almost a playground. We walk on all-fours, heads tipped up to see the sun, then we learn how to run, run, run; eyes bright with learning and intelligence; Here we go, here we go, and here we go. Round and over and beyond, all timed to perfection; leaving better versions of love behind us; catching grim determination, grim determination, grim determination by the jaws! And flipping him over; as he tries to bite Retreat before the second attack and catch the wave before it Covers your head, covers your head and you roll forever, in the undertow Blinking and sinking, with the fish.... Here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go! To the land of youth, with the head of a pig; I keep all my beauty, and it is your duty.... To kiss me, kiss me, kiss me! And keep me young, put down your gun, it’ll do you no good here! Keep your eyes in the adventurous realm! Waking or sleeping, this land it will hold you. The powers of time, and spells that enfold you; to the land of youth, with the head of a pig; I keep all my beauty and it is your duty To kiss me, kiss me, kiss me awake and keep me young, put down your gun, it’ll do you no good here.... In the land of youth, with the head of a pig, I keep all my beauty, and it is your duty, To kiss me, kiss me, kiss me awake......... copyright Karen Langley
2.
Beggars to Chance Ice cold waters of the snow-fed land; shipwrecked together; beggars to chance; chancing to live, living to death, dying to life, dying to life! Dry hot levels of the high-ridged sand You live in a state of war; no wisdom from experience; you think – you die but once, and reach the lighted city, The fortune’s far away! When you live outside the day; the safety never stays! And your naked heart cries pity!!! Shipwrecked together, beggars to chance, chancing to live, living to death, dying to life; Industry of the truthful, signals lost, never made misadventure, take the credit, and the rest in kind... Delight and destruction are both swept away, delight and destruction are both swept away, delight and destruction are both swept away...... copyright Karen Langley
3.
Centre Dead. He'd always been a man of legendary excess, washing off the freaks, the ghosts, the earth, the darkness. His expression was strangely dislocated. It zigzagged like a bolt of black lightning. He was listening to the boom of his heart in his head. The house is falling down; he said. So get out while you can, get out while you can, Fake and fragile are the walls, Swooning stucco lined with souls. He was dead centre; centre dead and left for living Came to light on scented pages The dead man's' house is where she rages! So get out while you can, she screamed Come collect the crazy man; on his back, he's in a trance, The drums of fate design his dance The drums of fate design his dance. Karen Langley (copyrighted material)

about

And the tongues listen.....
Part 2B of BABAL’s “The Circle of Confusion of Tongues” trilogy moves into epic musical territory with the EP, “The Big Everything/ Beggars to Chance”. (total running time 28:24)
To be released on February 28th on limited edition (75) numbered CD (MRRCD-22166) and download - with pre sales beginning on 28 January
“The Big Everything” begins with a bluesy/jazz invitation to experience the grand design of a life imagined. Shifting moods and musical motifs smoothly, this track winds along a tale of desire, yearning and soul-searching.
At times the piece is almost medieval in tone and colour, moving out towards a dark folk-tale ending. Progressive, cinematic and deeply seductive, this piece links specifically to “The Glacier” track from last years’ EP (Part 2A)
“Beggars to Chance” is a protest and survive song – backed by tight rhythmic drums, bass, keyboards and guitar synths/solos.
The plaintive call to arms speaks of dying to life and living in the moment – recurring lyrical themes for Karen Langley in this trilogy.
The beautiful psychedelic art of Andy White graces this EP, together with the intense, avant garde artwork of Paul Kopal; all pieced together by the skilful Rachel Armour.
Digested description; A tempestuous Babal-Noir trip; hard-boiled bedlam mixed with transcendental corridors of communication. Musically inventive and arranged and produced with passionate intensity.
“Here we go, here we go, here we go.......”
Available in very limited numbered CD (75) -MRRCD- 22166 and digital formats..
A full length video of The Big Everything will also be available
The CD comes with a A4 colour print of the "face melt"cover art and an individual unique surprise too from the Babalonians!

Carnival Records
March 6 at 9:03 PM ·
Here is our review of The Glacier and The Big Everything by Babal.

There’s a line in the new Babal releases - the key line, really - that perfectly captures the band’s comi-cynical worldview and the dark humour of their singular artistic vision.

“It is the awful comfort of mundane living that kills the spirit,” raps the irrepressible Karen Langley on The Glacier, an elegiac paen to the absurdity of our everyday lives.

She could have chosen to say anything, and she said this. It is pithy and resonant, and it acts as a manifesto for Babal’s wittily jaded take on this most curious of times.

From the opening minor chords of its downbeat strings, The Glacier emerges as the outstanding cut of the band’s latest material; effectively a mini-album spread across two lovingly-crafted EPs, parts 2a and 2b of The Circle of Confusion of Tongues trilogy that began life with last year’s memorable LP of the same name.

“You yearn for a flicker of a pulse,” drawls Langley over partner Rob Williams’ masterful guitar lines, providing real pathos and offering the insight of a rich life spent carefully observing the futility of suburban bourgeois existence.

In full existential Pink Floyd “two lost souls” mode, Langley shows that she somehow just *gets* it; that it’s not about the material; that the essential joy of things lies elsewhere, in the margins and through the stories of those on the edges of life’s oft-bizarre journey.

And so, what of the rest of it? Well, apart from being a wonderful song title, The Involuntary Reflex of the Terminal Bastard is vintage Babal: caustic and funny, with densely layered textures and great production. Williams’ proggy workouts recall top-drawer Killing Joke, while the indomitable Langley asserts her presence, putting a smile on your face throughout the comic-horror saga.

Toffeetime is almost in Rage Against The Machine territory; an aural assault that actively demands something of the listener. This isn’t music for wimps - Babal don’t do twee or just-so. There’s heart and fury in their schlock of post-punk-into-goth, and this is resolutely NOT music for a first date - unless you are Jeffrey Dahmer dating Rose West.

The quintessential Babal come to the surface once more on The Big Everything, a 20-minute epic that frames Karen’s transatlantic alter-ego Mimi Vogel in an expansive widescreen narrative - “I wanna experience... the big top and the great abyss” - pitched against dissonant notes, choppy breakbeats and a flurry of ‘70s synths.

As if to emphasise the duo’s blackly delicious meditations on the unknown, Karen and Rob are pictured on the EP cover, two cartoon-like figures, poker-faced and mildly bewildered respectively, riding at the head of a doomed urban overground train out of Gotham City head-on into... into God knows what.

After the sheer weightiness of the The Big Everything, Beggars To Chance soothes the listener with a relatively welcome reprieve of melody; a track that could almost find a home on The Joshua Tree, though only if Bono had taken some bad acid with Myra Hindley and Aldous Huxley. Langley is at her mystical best, soaring vocally and weighing life’s circumstances in a characteristically compassionate stance on making the best fist of the hand life deals you.

Babal, as I’ve suggested before, are a band who seem to be a snug fit for the oddly fractured era in which we find ourselves. If old England (and the civilised world) is dying, then here is a band that is charting its digital decay with a wry and cheery air of acceptance. What else can you do?

Chris Heard

credits

released February 28, 2019

music and lyrics - Rob Williams and Karen Langley
BABAL :
Karen Langley - Vocals, lyrics, arrangements
Rob Williams - Guitars/synthesis
Jon Sharp - Drums

Guest artistes:
Paul Smith - Bass on "The Big Everything"

Zoie Green - Keyboards on "Beggars To Chance"
Ben Balsom - Bass on "Beggars To Chance"

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

BABAL England, UK

One speaks and a thousand misunderstand
where millions are silent and a thunderous applause erupts
where chatter overwhelms humility and gossip destroys worlds
the tongues wag, the ears flap and the mind creates a wall
everything has been said but no one has understood
talking with conviction and concluding that knowledge is easy and effects a multitude of expanding smokescreens around truth
... more

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