Leftovers

A few new versions were released after we published the initial commentary on this blog, so let's grab a nice chunk of bread and mop up those last few leftovers.

Golden Wheel

You can see the original notes for Golden Wheel here.

Sappy's Spinning Mix

Our friend Sappy approached us and said he'd like to try remixing Golden Wheel, and came up with this new version. As with some of his other mixes, particularly Eyeballing, it was a total surprise to us and took it in a completely different direction.

At one point, I think we had vaguely considered releasing Golden Wheel as a single in its own right, but we never quite got our acts together...

Funnelweb Remix

I wanted to try a remix of Golden Wheel around the time it was originally released, and it ultimately became this. I didn't have any particular grand plans in mind - just to try changing a few bits here and there, and maybe extending it slightly. The vocoder line from this was later added to the album version, but the backing vocals on the original never made it onto this remix.

Better Days

You can see the original notes for Better Days here.

Phased Approach

This slightly cacophonous version started life around the time we were finishing the album. I wanted to try remixing it from a completely perspective, and this was what happened. It gradually builds, adding a new part every couple of bars and steadily getting louder and louder.

At one point I was going to leave the choruses off altogether, but they seemed to work at the end, like one of the remixes of Useless by Depeche Mode. I did try putting them back where they belonged, but it never quite seemed to work as well.

Almost

You can see the original notes for Almost here.

The Extra Mile

Almost was the newest track on Transmission, and the one which helped us get back into gear and finally finish the album. We worked on it in parallel, and my take - and remember this was just for fun - was a drum and bass version. Several of the noises and ideas from that version made it into the original.

I'd long since ditched that version when in mid-2013, Simon decided to resurrect some of the ideas from it, building this great extended trippy version, and mashing my vocals a bit at the front. As one of our favourites and the track which had launched the album, it seemed a natural lead track for the remix EP.

And with the lead track from the seventh and final single Intermission, that concludes the commentary for the tracks on the Transmission project. We hope you enjoyed it!

Splinters

As a postscript to our ninth album Transmission, we released a second remix EP in October 2013 entitled Intermission, which included one previously unreleased track, Splinters.



Splinters was initially written by Simon, starting almost exactly a decade ago. It took three years to transition from "idea" to "demo", and even longer to finally appear on a release, as it took a very long time for us to find the right sound. Despite that, it's one of the early Transmission-era tracks which helped to define the sound of the album.

The lyrics come from a frustration about party politics, particularly Tony Blair and his cronies.

The lyrics:

You pierce my skin with your splinters
You freeze my spring back to winter
You turn my world on its side
And switch my day into night

And there’s no one but you who can take the blame

You wage acts of war and you expect me to talk
You redefine the crime as you lay down the law
We’ve suffered your arrogance so many times
And now you go asking us to toe the line
Splintered words

Your words etched deep on my conscience
A stream of venomous nonsense
You spit and you twist with your lies
And you’re the thorn in our sides

And there you go, you spew more rot and hatred

You wage acts of war and you expect me to talk
You redefine the crime as you lay down the law
We’ve suffered your arrogance so many times
And now you go asking us to toe the line
Splintered souls
And there’s no one without their head in shame

You wage acts of war and you expect me to talk
You redefine the crime as you lay down the law
We’ve suffered your arrogance so many times
And now you go asking us to toe the line
Splintered minds

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

Centuries Later

The final single from our ninth album Transmission was Blood, Sweat and Tears, released in March 2013. It included just one new b-side, Centuries Later.



In retrospect I think we got a couple of things wrong with the Blood, Sweat and Tears single. At the time we weren't entirely planning to finish things off with Intermission, so we thought this might be the last single from the album - otherwise we might have put the Golden Wheel remix on the EP, where it would have been a more natural fit. And we only had one b-side ready at the time, and unfortunately I'm not sure Centuries Later is the best song we've ever written.

It's pretty old actually - the earliest demos date back to early 2005, which is why the lyrics have a slightly more preachy Empires / Dusk feel - and the chord sequence is borrowed from House of Cards, but played backwards. Over eight years it underwent numerous rewrites and lost the raw octave bassline with which it had started life, and finally it turned up as the only b-side on the fourth Transmission single in 2013.

The lyrics:

We should be proud of what we’ve achieved
We’ve satisfied our every need
As time goes by, we always attack
Blow up the past and never look back

Many years of progress
But look at what we've done

Centuries later, still nothing has changed
Our progress is driven by our own decay
Centuries later, the same people reign
So many lives wasted, building our remains

Look at the past, and see what has been
We're driven by our anger and greed
Should we be proud with so many dead
Or look behind for each step ahead?

Many ways to repress
We chose the loaded gun

Centuries later, still nothing has changed
Our progress is driven by our own decay
Centuries later, the same people reign
So many lives wasted, building our remains

Many roads to success
And still we stumble on

Centuries later, still nothing has changed
Our progress is driven by our own decay
Centuries later, the same people reign
So many lives wasted, building our remains

Centuries later, still nothing has changed
Our progress is driven by our own decay
Centuries later, the same people reign
So many lives wasted, building our remains

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

Words Come Easy

Our third single Here Comes the Summertime included two new tracks when it came out in mid-2012, of which the second was Words Come Easy.



According to my notes, I overheard some people talking total drivel one day, and I think I found it amusing that it's so easy to talk about nothing, which seemed as though it might be a good idea for a song. And while it might not particularly sound like it, the music is actually inspired by Umbrella by Rihanna and Enjoy the Silence by Depeche Mode.

It took quite a long journey from its original demo, and it might have even made it onto the album if only we had managed to mix it in time - unfortunately the backing vocals only turned up at the very last minute and I was really struggling to do them justice. It turned out pretty well in the end, although I think I might have buried the vocals a bit too low in the mix.

The lyrics:

Words come so easy
When there’s nothing left to say
It’s almost tragic
How my heart has turned again

Have I missed another chance to find
The perfect balance that was in my mind?
It drives me crazy and I can’t explain
Why words don’t come to me as they did then

Days pass so slowly
With a boulder in the way
I know can’t be there for real
When I look again

Dreaming of another time when I
Thought everything was perfect in my mind
It seemed so easy, and I can’t believe
But now it seems my words are failing me

Have I missed another chance to find
The perfect balance that was in my mind?
It drives me crazy and I can’t explain
Why words don’t come to me as they did then

Dreaming of another time when I
Thought everything was perfect in my mind
It seemed so easy, and I can’t believe
But now it seems my words are failing me

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

Homeward Bound

The third single from our ninth album Transmission was Here Comes the Summertime, and included two new tracks, the first of which was Homeward Bound.



Most of the b-sides on the Transmission project were very old indeed, and this is no exception - it was started in about 2003 or 2004, and wasn't finished until 2012. I completely forgot about having written it, and could never really get the hang of the original demo version, which I think was maybe just a bit too dark for its own good.

Simon had always pushed it as a track that might have some potential, and I'd been trying for years to work it into a finished product. Then, late in 2011, I was living in Los Angeles and contemplating where life was taking me, and everything just seemed to fall into place. As it turned out, it's actually one of my favourite tracks of recent times - if we'd finished it a year earlier it might have even made it onto the album.

The lyrics:

Only you can bring me home now
The horizon is black again
All that time I hoped to wander
Every chance is built on pain

As the light fades into night
There's nothing left inside

Sometimes it's hard when the road goes nowhere
Every step leads you astray
Sometimes the signs point in all directions
Boulders fall into the way

Souvenirs are all I have now
Postcards of another town
When I left, my route was clearer
On until the sun went down

Now it's straight, and through the sand
This highway never ends

Sometimes it's hard when the road goes nowhere
Every step leads you astray
Sometimes the signs point in all directions
Boulders fall into the way

While my vision fades and burns
I've no drive to return

Sometimes it's hard when the road goes nowhere
Every step leads you astray
Sometimes the signs point in all directions
Boulders fall into the way

Sometimes it's hard when the road goes nowhere
Every step leads you astray
Sometimes the signs point in all directions
Boulders fall into the way

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

These Four Walls

In early 2012, we reissued our second single I'll Give You Electro, and included two new b-sides, the first of which was These Four Walls.


I think this was written in the second shared house I lived in when I was in Leeds. It was an enormous house, with plenty of space and some great people, but things fell apart a bit over the time I lived there. This was probably written one day while I listened to the sound of bass coming through the floor...

I'm not sure it all works entirely as a song, but actually I'm quite proud of some of the lyrics - I like the rhymes, and the way each verse refers back to the first one. The line about "a fallow machine," can be quite an apt metaphor for city living as well. Having said that, the repetition of "grey" was not intentional.

The music takes some inspiration from Take That's Back for Good, which is quite a claim to fame. At the last minute, Simon decided to add a new backing vocal line, which turned out to be impossible for me to get right, so the vocoder sang them in the end.

The lyrics:

Thinking back when the skies were blue
And these four walls seemed bright and new
Your faults were careless and unreal woes
That would get to me as I sank below

Those uncertain people who all seem the same
With no time for dreaming or playing new games
Their urban existence is hollow and grey
Drifting through life’s pathways on these endless days

Now all I hear is the selfish din
And these four walls are closing in
My will broken by vulgar streets
That hold me back as I face defeat

We’re uncertain people with different lives
And no time for dreaming, impatiently drive
My urban existence, a fallow machine
Drifting through life’s pathways with no sleep between

So yesterday I tried to break
Down these four walls inside my head
To clear the dust from my greying mind
And leave the past to crawl behind

Those uncertain people who all seem the same
With no time for dreaming or playing new games
Their urban existence is hollow and grey
Drifting through life’s pathways on these endless days

We’re uncertain people with different lives
And no time for dreaming, impatiently drive
My urban existence, a fallow machine
Drifting through life’s pathways with no sleep between

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

Sleepwalker

At the end of 2011 we released a remix EP called Remission, on which we also included a new non-album track, Sleepwalker.



Sleepwalker was a very easy set of lyrics to write (admittedly they may not actually be very good) - I had a simple idea, and following it through to its logical conclusion was pretty straightforward. Simon had been trying to sequence an old track called What Makes it Go back in 2006, and this had furnished him with some new ideas.

It was a strong influence on the sound of Transmission, although it didn't quite make it onto the album in the end. When we were compiling Remission we decided that it would be nice to include a new track, and this seemed an obvious candidate.

The lyrics:

Midnight comes, I want to run
And hide from everything
I hear the voices in my sleep
And wonder what they bring

I can’t stop my mind from thinking
I can’t face life in the cold

I’m a sleepwalker, deep waters
Flooding through my dreams
A stargazer, blind chaser
Running out of time

And at this hour, I feel no power
I want to live and breathe
When freedom calls I can’t resist
Its lure and energy

I can’t stop my mind from thinking
I can’t face life in the cold

I’m a sleepwalker, deep waters
Flooding through my dreams
A stargazer, blind chaser
Running out of time

And then the days became a haze
With nothing to enjoy
Once vibrant streets are dead again
Like long-forgotten toys

I can’t stop my mind from thinking
I can’t face life in the cold

I’m a sleepwalker, deep waters
Flooding through my dreams
A stargazer, blind chaser
Running out of time

I’m a sleepwalker, deep waters
Flooding through my dreams
A stargazer, blind chaser
Running out of time

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

The Journey Here

The single for I'll Give You Electro featured a rather unnecessary three bonus tracks, the last of which was The Journey Here.


I had been spending some time listening to our older songs, trying to understand what it was that made them what they were. This one was inspired by the Zero era.

The journey that Simon took to writing it was similarly obscure - the chords were originally built around the bass line from New Order's Blue Monday, and he also took inspiration from the Crash Test Dummies' Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm when writing the "aaah aaah" parts.

It might have even been good enough to go on the album, except that it wasn't ready in time, and also it's not too far from Better Days in terms of "message". Never mind...

The lyrics:

Well it’s true, life was simple then
I would learn something new each day
So now my feet move more easily
But it feels as though it’s all been said

I wonder where I lost my way
It looked alright until today
The journey here was long and slow
Now nothing’s easy any more

You were right, things were normal then
Never fought, or struggled anyway
So now the torment comes readily
And the past seems livid, cold and grey

I wonder where I lost my way
It looked alright until today
The journey here was long and slow
Now nothing’s easy any more

You gave me freedom, made me think
You drove me crazy, made me sink
And now at last I know who you are
You always watch me from afar

I wonder where I lost my way
It looked alright until today
The journey here was long and slow
Now nothing’s easy any more

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

Weather the Storm

The second single from Transmission, I'll Give You Electro, featured three bonus tracks, the second of which was Weather the Storm.


We got a bit stuck on the title to this one - it's a lot like In the Eye of the Storm, which you probably only noticed if you were really paying attention. The World Will Still Be Broken in the Morning might have been a good title if it hadn't been quite so long, and we had plenty of other ideas too. In the end I think we just forgot about it and called it Weather the Storm anyway.

When Simon wrote the music, it was slightly by accident. He had intended to sequence another track, but had got distracted with this instead. We both quite like the way it turned out, although the chorus doesn't really make sense. Even so, there's something quite uplifting about the melody.

The lyrics:

So here we are again
Waiting for the day to end
Close to the hour at last
When these wretched feelings pass

I’m sailing too close to the wind
To find the heart of the problem

But the world will still be broken in the morning
It won’t seem brighter but at least it will still be turning

And that’s pretty much the way
That I felt until today
Then the sun split the clouds
Till this ship ran aground

I’m drifting along through the days
Towards the root of all evil

But the world will still be broken in the morning
It won’t seem brighter but at least it will still be turning

I’m sinking under, paralysed
Away from freedom and rescue

But the world will still be broken in the morning
It won’t seem brighter but at least it will still be turning

But the world will still be broken in the morning
It won’t seem brighter but at least it will still be turning

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

Dissolution

The second single from Transmission was I'll Give You Electro, released in October 2011. There were three new non-album tracks, the first of which was Dissolution.


I'm not sure we ever really saw this as anything more than a b-side, but there's nothing particularly wrong with it either. The lyrics - particularly the second verse - feel distinctly to me as though they belong on Dusk, and so it should come as no surprise that it was originally written in about 2004.

The lyrics:

You dissolved into the air
Like a ripple in the breeze
Then you sank under the shoreline
With nothing left for me to breathe

Memories, your dissolution
Leaving me in isolation

Far beyond on a wind seeking freedom
And you’re never to be seen again
You dissolve, in a day you go higher
But you’ve never been this high before

Swept away into the distance
On a zephyr to be free
You drift off with leaves and martyrs
With no air left for me to breathe

Perfect times, no confrontation
Then you left this situation

Far beyond on a wind seeking freedom
And you’re never to be seen again
You dissolve, in a day you go higher
But you’ve never been this high before

Memories, your dissolution
Leaving me in isolation

Far beyond on a wind seeking freedom
And you’re never to be seen again
You dissolve, in a day you go higher
But you’ve never been this high before

Far beyond on a wind seeking freedom
And you’re never to be seen again
You dissolve, in a day you go higher
But you’ve never been this high before

And you’ll never fly this high again...

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

Shattered Mirrors

The second b-side for the Better Days single, released in April 2011, was Shattered Mirrors.


Broken Mirrors, as this was originally called, was essentially just an exercise in trying to push a metaphor much too hard, with lots of lines about "shards of you," and so-on.

Simon, meanwhile, was trying to build a simple dance track in the style of Sylver, but it didn't take too long before he had decided it sounded better at a slightly less manic tempo, with glass breaking samples to lighten the mood a little.

Caught next to a song called The Broken Generation and only one single after Broken, we were stuck with a bit of a dilemma for the title, so it ended up with the better name Shattered Mirrors instead.

The lyrics:

There you are, you see
You made me believe
Then my world caved in
With shards of dreams on me

There you are again
My fairweather friend
Look who turned my world
Into dust again

Everywhere I look are pieces of you
Shattered like the day it ended for good

Too far gone to ever be repaired
Too late now to ever be the same

There you are at last
You live life too fast
And always forget
That I was here first

Everything I see is battered and bruised
Scattered when the hope I clung to diffused

Too far gone to ever be repaired
Too late now to ever be the same

Everyone I knew has sided with you
Left me on the ground, and found something new

Too far gone to ever be repaired
Too late now to ever be the same

Too far gone to ever be repaired
Too late now to ever be the same

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

The Broken Generation

The first single from our ninth album Transmission, released way back in early 2011, was Better Days. There were two non-album tracks, of which the first was The Broken Generation.


Lyrically this isn't too far away from Blind Youth, but although ancient, it's not quite that old - it started life around the middle of 2004. Simon took it away and built a song entirely out of Roland SH-101 samples before eventually breaking his own rules and throwing loads of other stuff at it.

We rewrote the bulk of it in early 2008, and it turned out pretty nicely, but we weren't completely sure it was strong enough to go on the album, so it became one of the b-sides to the first single instead.

The lyrics:

We live in a world
Where nothing is real
Can’t escape from this place
Where the truth is concealed

We do what we want
You couldn’t care less
We’ll do anything
To keep up with the rest

We’re the broken generation
No ideas or inspiration

So this is our moment
We live for the day
We’re always the only ones
With something to say

Try anything once
Who cares what it does?
Tomorrow will come
If we don’t all die first

We're the broken generation
But we're you're hope and your salvation

It’s kill or be killed
On the mean streets for us
We always protest
So you’ll listen for once

We’re the broken generation
No ideas or inspiration

We're the broken generation
But we're you're hope and your salvation

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

Without Life

The final track on Transmission is entitled Without Life.



Just before Christmas 2006, I decided to enter a short story competition, but the guidelines were very precise, and the deadline a little too short, so I wasn't able to get anything finished on time. The story wasn't really working anyway, but it had some nice ideas, so I decided to try it out as a song instead.

The music was originally an experiment using only soft synths in Ableton Live, although it was completely re-recorded for the album. I'd decided it might make a nice last track, but Simon wasn't sure about the ending, so I suggested we should add a new false ending. In the end, it turned out to be a rather melancholic coda, which closes the album rather nicely in my opinion.

The lyrics:

Without life, we are nothing
No sounds of silence, no view of blackness
No words to say what we should
Oh, we are nothing when we’re without life

In the pulse of the instant, you breathe life again
In the arrogant moment, you’re free
When the time is right, you will become something new
There is still life, together as one

Without life, we’re revolving
Sight without seeing, sound without hearing
We are blind to what floats by us
Oh, we are nothing when we’re without life

In the pulse of the instant, you breathe life again
In the arrogant moment, you’re free
When the time is right, you will become something new
There is still life, together as one

Without life, there is nothing
No sense of feeling, no words or breathing
We’re just fools, drifting slowly
Oh, we are nothing when we’re without love

In the pulse of the instant, you breathe life again
In the arrogant moment, you’re free
When the time is right, you will become something new
There is still life, together as one

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

I'll Give You Electro

Our attempt at a catchy piece of meaningless pop came from an unlikely source. The second single and eleventh track on Transmission was I'll Give You Electro.

I remember getting a very apologetic email from Simon containing the original demo of this, saying something along the lines of "This was just a bit of fun, and maybe it could be a b-side." Nonsense, I replied - it's brilliant.

It was actually originally based on a review we'd received for one of the tracks on Dusk, which was along the lines of, "You need some UK electro attitude, more kick and more bass." So we gave them electro.

We've never actually released a track that came out in as many different versions. In chronological order, we did a single version:



Then a retro 90s-themed version called the Imperfect Attitude Mix:



We actually started on the road towards retro mixes with the version called I'll Give You Retro, although we didn't finish that until quite a lot later. It might sound as though it's rather tongue in cheek, built entirely out of 80s clichés, such as handclaps, cowbells, FM synth sounds, and orchestral hits - but in a way it's a very sincere tribute to some of our favourite 80s dance records and remixes. Here it is:



Then there was an electro mix by Sappy, which is the secret bonus track on our remix EP Remission too. Don't tell anyone I said that, because it's a secret.

The lyrics:

You say that you want emotion
And you claim that you need attitude
You say that you want devotion
But this is what we do

Why don’t you just listen for a while?
Is anybody listening any more?

Well I’ll give you electro
And you can stick it up your bass
Yeah I’ll give you electro
How do you like it in your face?

You say that you miss the feeling
And you cry that you’d like something more
You say that we lack direction
And our delivery’s poor

Why don’t you try listening for a while?
Does anybody listen any more?

Well I’ll give you electro
And you can stick it up your bass
Yeah I’ll give you electro
How do you like it in your face?

Why don’t you just listen for a while?
Is anybody listening any more?

Well I’ll give you electro
And you can stick it up your bass
Yeah I’ll give you electro
How do you like it in your face?

Well I’ll give you electro
We’ll see if you can get it out
Yeah I’ll give you electro
Who’s the one with feeling now?

I’ll give you something new, I’ll give you more

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

Here Comes the Summertime

The tenth track on Transmission, and the third proper single, was Here Comes the Summertime.



I started this as an uptempo track to go on Dusk in early 2005 - it was a simple, happy, and fairly meaningless track which was intended to provide a bit of light relief from the rest of the darkness on the album. It was Simon who turned it into the downtempo track that it became, while watching the awful film Black Hawk Down.

It was the first track we'd ever done that had any kind of visual element, as I'd used the video editing tools on my new computer to put together a very rough video, and a couple of years later I decided to revive this. It was a bit short on ideas though, so I decided we should try chopping a chunk out of the original song so that the video didn't need to be too long.

This nearly became the single version, except that without trying very hard I also ran off a mix with a hip hop drum loop, which we both liked, and with a new bassline and synth part, we had a new single version, which seems to have subsequently gone down rather well in Canada for some reason.

Finally, Simon decided he didn't like all the editing, and did an extended version, with all the bits put back in again:



But that turned out not to be the end - a few months later, Sappy got in touch, saying he'd like to try a remix. Even longer, and even more epic than Simon's extended version, it's just appeared on our new EP of collected mixes:



Here are the lyrics:

Back then we slept in tombs of sadness
Finding the answers in excesses
The days were short and came to nothing
But led to shores of hate and longing

And so we’ve made it through together
And now it’s going to last

We’re leaving the past behind us now
As at last we feel satisfied
So here comes the summertime again
Will we find our lost paradise?

Now the days seem so bright and so long
It once looked like we’d never see them
Now it’s hard to sleep the days away
In case they never come again

So what shall we do now together?
Keep running till we fall

There’s nothing for us to hide behind
Or to keep the truth locked inside
So here comes the summertime again
Will we find our lost paradise?

Keep dreaming away
Until the dawn of another day
There’s nowhere to stay
We’ll always find another way back home

Let’s spend all of our days together
Until the summer ends

We’re leaving the past behind us now
As at last we feel satisfied
So here comes the summertime again
Will we find our lost paradise?

There’s nothing for us to hide behind
Or to keep the truth locked inside
So here comes the summertime again
Will we find our lost paradise?

Keep dreaming away
Until the dawn of another day
There’s nowhere to stay
We’ll always find another way back home

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

Intermission - sleeve notes

Just over two years ago, we released an album called <Transmission>. Since then, we've messed around a lot with the tracks, adding little extra bits here and there, and tweaking the odd noise where we thought it might help.

<Intermission> is no exception. Here are four more tracks from the album, reworked, revised, and revisited. Almost has been stretched a little, and made a lot more drummy. I’ll Give You Electro has taken a trip into the past as a tribute to our favourite acts of the 1980s. Golden Wheel has just seen a bit of a reworking for no particular reason, and Here Comes the Summertime is the latest track to see treatment at the hands of Sappy, making it into a seven minute epic. As an extra special bonus for this EP, around the half way mark you'll also find a new track called Splinters.

However, we’ve kind of run out of things to release now, so we're going to take a little holiday.

Distant Moon

Picking up our commentary of the album Transmission, the ninth track is entitled Distant Moon.



I had a great loft room for a couple of years from 2006, and the moon would pass directly overhead (it tends to do that). As would police helicopters actually, often while I was in the bath, but that's another story for another album.

At that time I was spending a few late nights writing songs, and I would watch the moon bobbing along, trying to get inspiration. Perhaps not surprisingly, this song grew very organically out of that.

In a way, it sounds as though it might be lyrically quite dark, but it's actually supposed to be quite hopeful - the narrator is sorry to have seen you go, but (s)he knows you'll be fine, wherever you've ended up. It was supposed to be a bit of a counterpoint to Wherever You Are Now, our single from a couple of years earlier, which had a slightly bitter edge to the lyrics.

Random fact fans might like to know that the rhythm is based on All Good Things by Nelly Furtado.

The lyrics:

Where is my silver moon?
In shadow since I last saw you
I cast off every hour
And push to find some other power

As crystal raindrops fall
I can’t help but recall

I know you’re out there somewhere
And I know you’re happy there
As I look out from my window
Up upon that distant moon

Where is my silver moon?
If only I’d not left so soon
Just think what could have been
Another day, another me

If only I’d done more
Than sit back and ignore

I know you’re out there somewhere
And I know you’re happy there
As I look out from my window
Up upon that distant moon

Will wonders never cease?
Beyond the daybreak’s reach

I know you’re out there somewhere
And I know you’re happy there
As I look out from my window
Up upon that distant moon

I know you’re out there somewhere
And I know you’re happy there
As I look out from my window
I become that distant moon

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

There was also a rap, which never entirely worked, but would have had the following lyrics:

Well I know you’re out there somewhere in the shadows of the past
And I hope that you’re happy knowing it would never last
We talk about the distance when we’re travelling so fast
And somewhere in the future we go far beyond the stars

I look out from my window on a world that seems so blue
And look back on the moments when we sat there me and you
Emotions run like rivers taking me to somewhere new
And I become a watcher up upon that distant moon

(R. Martin / S. Martin)

The Ultimate Guide to Dusk Archive

Dusk Archive started life as a series of five singles, released to promote the album Dusk between 2007 and 2008. Here are some archive posts which will give you greater insight.

Consequences single (April 2007)

We first hinted at the new single and its contents in February 2007, although for some reason we didn't know what it would actually be at that stage. The official announcement followed in April.

1. My Light - comments published in December 2007
2. Echoes of Perfection - comments published in May 2007
3. Moving On - comments published in May 2008
4. Consequences (Electrobongo Remix)

Beneath the Silent Skies - single (July 2007)

By June we seemed to have a reasonable idea of what might come next - here's a hint at the second single. The official announcement was then made in early July (note that Woolworth's still existed back then).

1. Point of No Return - comments published in May 2008
2. Running with the Wind - comments published in May 2008
3. Beneath the Silent Skies (Part 2)
4. The Healing - comments published in April 2008

Bulletproof - single (October 2007)

In September, we were still trying hard to remix Bulletproof, but didn't quite seem to have managed it very much in advance. We formally announced this single a matter of days before it was released.

1. Bulletproof (Western Mix)
2. Fallen - comments published in April 2008
3. Lose Control - comments published in May 2008
4. House of Cards - comments published in May 2008
5. Bulletproof (Kevlar Mix)

The End - single (December 2007)

As usual we hinted at the single before it came out, and then had to retrospectively promote it in January 2008, having embarrassingly forgotten to promote it at the time.

1. Heaven Only Knows - comments published in April 2008
2. Never Wanted This - comments published in May 2008
3. What I Would Do - comments published in May 2008
4. Someone Else's Dream - comments published in May 2008
5. Broken - comments published in May 2008
6. The End (Ostkreuz Mix)
7. Faint Footsteps - comments published in May 2008

iDusk - EP (May 2008)

The iDusk EP was our iTunes debut, hinted at in April, and formally announced in May 2008. Although five years old already, we didn't really know what iTunes was at this stage, and seemingly neither did anyone else, because the EP did pretty well.

1. King for a Day - comments published in May 2008

Bonus Demo Versions (2005-2007)

The first two of these were originally released as download / stream exclusives with the Consequences single in April 2007 (they are mentioned here). The third is completely exclusive to Dusk Archive.

1. Moving On (Demo)
2. Echoes of Perfection (Demo)
3. Never Wanted This (Demo)

In October 2010, I compiled a list of my top ten highlights of the Dusk era, with a little bit of extra retrospective commentary. You can read all about that here.

I also compiled one of these posts for the original Dusk album, which you may view here.

More recently, we also wrote some sleeve notes for the new release here.

The Ultimate Guide to Dusk

This blog has an extensive archive going right back to way before we released Dusk the first time around, so we are now able to present the full and comprehensive guide to the album.

The first mention of the album was made in December 2004, when it was planned for release "in the first half of 2005" (though this was later revealed to be a lie). In October 2006, Simon was to be found mixing vocals for The End and Consequences, with Heaven Only Knows following a few weeks later.

Dusk was finally formally announced in mid-December, and a commentary for each track followed over the next year or so.

1. Not Even Close - comments published in February 2007
2. I Have Never - comments published in December 2007
3. Beneath the Silent Skies - comments published in July 2007
4. Calmwaters - comments published in January 2007
5. In the Moonlight - comments published in December 2007
6. Consequences - comments published in April 2007
7. Signs of Life - comments published in December 2007
8. Hidden Context - comments published in December 2007
9. Perfect Geometry - comments published in December 2006
10. Bulletproof - comments published in December 2007
11. The End - comments published in December 2007
12. Red Shadows - comments published in January 2007

We spent most of 2007 releasing singles from the album (most on that in the equivalent Dusk Archive post to follow), and then in May 2008 put together a little cut-down version of the album especially for iTunes, the iDusk EP. We've never mentioned this before, but the EP was so successful that in early 2009 we even talked about reissuing Dusk on CD with a couple of bonus tracks.

Unfortunately duration constraints meant that we were never entirely happy with the bonuses, which sowed the first seeds of doubt in our minds. But ultimately, we decided that we didn't really want our last album to be the first to represent us in such a widespread form, and with Transmission seemingly so close to release, we decided to concentrate on that instead. We still haven't quite got round to doing a full CD release even now.

Anyway, in October 2010, I compiled a list of my top ten highlights of the Dusk era, with a little bit of extra retrospective commentary. You can read all about that here.

In case you had forgotten already, we also wrote some sleeve notes for the new reissue of Dusk here.

Dusk Archive - sleeve notes

At the end of 2006 we released our eighth album Dusk, having worked on it for a little over three years. It was released during a key period. Web streaming was becoming more popular, and MySpace was at its peak. Releasing an album in this environment was a bit of an adventure for us, but to our surprise it was well received.

The first single Consequences got a lot of attention, and led to our appearance on a compilation named Electraparade later in 2007. The last single The End – in reality more of an EP of left-over tracks – also caught the attention of listeners.

Thanks to this, we put together our first iTunes release, a cut-down selection of album highlights which we called the iDusk EP. At the time of writing, this remains our most successful single to date.

Dusk Archive contains all the tracks from those singles, and while the quality does vary, we hope you will enjoy this collection as much as we enjoyed compiling it.