Friends,
Walking around the old core of Xi'an, China, I was struck by the predominance of two structures--the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower. These buildings dedicated to the two most essential elements of music took me on a trip, and I decided to change the name of my musical act from Funeral Songs, four-albums in, to Drum & Bell Tower.
The Black Need was recorded in 2008. At the time I had very few friends in my new town of Williams Lake, BC, and I had just discovered the near infinite possibilities of computer programming and recording. With no social life, I had the time to go pretty wild with automation, effects, and layering. The result is my most accomplished, lushly textured, multi-instrumental, psychedelic journey into big crunchy beats and electronica. By far my most labour intensive recording, it is the one that I am most satisfied with as a production.
However...
During the festival season of 2009 I fell out of love with all the gear, and I shifted focus to acoustic instruments.
I recorded "Scratch Out Your Name" in Wells, BC, in November of '09 in the cozyl Wells United Church; it had been the acoustic venue for many amazing shows at ArtsWells festivals over the years.
Leading up to the recording, and during it, I had been reading a variety of non-fiction books on ecology, economics, and the empire, as well as a number of books by Cormac McCarthy. I think the lyrics reflect that focus, as they are often dark and heavy.
The recording process was fairly basic. I laid all drum, hi-hat and guitar tracks live, adding vocals and harmonies after. I mixed it myself but had sense enough to send it away for mastering to Beck Audio in Victoria.
Of all my recordings, this one has had the most positive audience response. I guess it's the audible lyrics (!) and its up-beat and often danceable vibe.
In 2011, I returned to Wells for another wintry week and recorded Burn Beneath the Water in the decommissioned St. George United Church. It's style, form, and subject matter is very much in step with Scratch Out. I hope you enjoy it. I look forward to touring it extensively in 2011/2012.
Thanks for reading and for listening,
Yours,
Brent Morton / Drum & Bell Tower
Discography:
Drum & Bell Tower
1. 2011: Burn Beneath the Water
2. 2010: Scratch Out Your Name
3. 2008: The Black Need
Funeral Songs
4. 2007: Root Circuitous (with Quadrant Khan)
5. 2006: A Measured Response.
6. 2005: Broken Glass Played in the Band (with Ryan Davidson aka Feral Children)
7. 2004: We Are A Sign That Is Not Read (with Travis...I can't remember his last name!)
The Nihilo Fitz/The Escape Goats (with Christian Lafleur aka Fighting the Philosophers)
8. 2003: Self Titled
9. 2002: Self Titled
The Anderson Counsel (with Christian Lafleur and Grant Laxdal)
10. 2002: The Anderson Counsel Rigorously Supports the Opulent Minority's Unrelenting Quest for Plutocratic Hegemony (with Chris Laramee of Shooting Guns)
11. 2000: Epitheriotomy
12. 1998: Live
Brent Morton
13. 2006: Underground on Oxford (with Bob Morton on the Highland Bagpipe)
14. 2000: Self Titled
15. 1999: Self Titled
Burn Beneath the Water: Lyrics
1. No Gods
No gods in this folklore
Change come shift come, and the wheels roll
Bliss yourself out; hook in to that flow
Carving lines out of the forrest floor
Lose your zen and you go'ne lose control (and so it)
Goes so quick wrong yeah real horrorshow
Wounded egos and them broken bones
Take your fair share, ‘cause that bell’s go'ne toll
No gods in this folklore
Change come shift come and the wheels roll
Loops and sequence it's per-petual
change come shift come
2. A Billion Sets
The face in paint & the songs they sing
Resound a hollow ring
‘Cause oily sands & Afghanistan
Show stained & bloodied hands
& it’s much too late to save the state
The bonds disintegrate
Options exhaust; they’ve won we’ve lost
The Rubicon’s been crossed
& we took the bait--O, heavy weight
To own so foul fate
It’s an ecocide, and we watched it live
With a billion sets of eyes
A billion sets--worse to come yet
The billion sets of Is
3. Dropping the Seeds
A pocket of loose change and words on the breeze
There’s not much left to say now and less to believe
A tangled confusion like uprooted trees
You best forget all you heard and doubt what you see
We roll down the highway asleep at the wheel
When we let down our guard he made off with the keys
The mesh wire cages--the riot police
All the fences have holes now too small for your feet
And you’re moving in pictures; you’re up on the screen
All the buildings have eyes now; they’re wise to the scene
From the tallest of ladders, he plucks of the trees
There’s no fruit left below, but he’s dropping the seeds
Our darkest addiction black waves on the seas
Got all kinds of dispersant, but they can’t cap a leak
So we shouting down Chevron, we’re blasting BP
But the market they serve man it’s you, man it’s me
You can dress it all up institutionally
Our fascination with wealth and Commanders in Chief
It might look good on top, but it rots underneath
And there’s a longing for death in the essence of greed
A pocket of loose change and words on the breeze
There’s not much left to say now. Should we just let it be...
A mass of confusion, like whales on a beach?
You best forget all you know...I said forget all you know
And trust what you feel
4. Very Star (a remedy)
If you see light, would you be light?
If you see the right, would you be right?
If you see the just, would you be just?
If you feel trust, could you be trusted?
With your mind and your heart
Your shine, your very star
If you see peace, would you be peace?
If you see the real, would you be released?
If you see love, would you be love?
Stand in light, reflect it.
With your mind and your heart
Your shine your very star
If you see love, won’t you be love?
5. Throttled Rage (for Chris Hedges)
Throttles your rage with specious claims they mobilize as they entertain
A centre stage jus'like a head of state the courtier bows and powders his face
A masquerade of phonies and flakes as it burns they fan the flames
Got miracles for complex problems wave their hands & their magic wands
A manchu court-aint got no balls say they eunuchs runnin' the fourth estate
With crystal myth with dope fictitious dolin' out our daily fix
Social malaise--the spirit of the age; drilling lines down to tap your pain
A masquerade of cronies and cranks as it burns they fan the flames
But that cripplin’ fear ain't got no place here; we keep our heads 'til them airwaves clear
I’ll do my best, hold you to my chest & keep you near 'til them skies all clear
6. Lamps by Day (church floor)
Bust them boulders split them stones
One tonne trucks and mobile homes
Last stand of trees guarding the ground
Your cloud of doom covers my town
Pick them berries pen songs
Shame to fools for mouthing off (get by)
Pickin’ berries pen songs
Shield the land it shelters all
Same old song a tarnished line
Corporate radio's file'd my mind
Check for pulse for beating heart
Down the throat it chokes our art
Lifting loads and pushing piles
Burning cords and trapped sunlight
Bright they shine our lamps in vain
Wasted life like lamps by day
Bright they shine lamps in vain
Wasted life; lamps by day
7. Black Blood
Send the leader into battle zones
The profiteer to the war zones
Hiding out from eyes of unmanned drones
As Willy Pete lights Fallujah
Send the poet with the golden tongue
Tell the tale of the widows
Send the artist with the coloured brush
To paint the bodies with black blood
Post the image on your weblog
Paint a sign on your t-shirt
Host a sit in at the town hall
Pin a sign on the church door
To say the heart ain't a black hole
8. The Walking Blues
Came to see her looked high and low to find my muse
To see through her eyes now a golden window the alien view
A subtle line now--step out of balance stumbles on abuse
To fill them shows now, I got the walkin’, got the walking blues
But come this evening, we'll be breakin’ the law
Come sit beside me stare on the cosmos in awe
This day's dilemmas these baseless invectives they withdraw
It’s an insurrection, my spirit's rebellion, mental coup d'etat
High in the Andes they’re pickin’ the leaves from the sacred crop
What’s makin’ the money now: the peasant farming or the war on drugs?
Out on the Panjwaii them bloody poppies growin row on row
our crooked bankers, they launder the profit in a quid pro quo
But come this evening, well, we'll be breakin’ the law
Come walk beside me we’ll trail our creation in awe
Predicaments and these wicked dilemmas they resolve
It’s an insurrection, my spirit's rebellion, mental coup d'etat
To fill them shoes now, I got the walkin’, the walkin’ blues
9. The Water Song (In the Ground It Stays Chilcotin Gold)
Are we tempted t'ward the flood? Are we crying tears of blood?
Just because we can don't mean we should
I opened up and I listened long--tried to write a water song
In the light of all we've done her wrong
We've we been tempted t'ward the flood--our swollen eyes and our thirsty tongues
Come seven days we'll be crying tears of blood
Mine for copper mine for gold; the heavy wheels begin to roll
Chase the dragon of never ending growth
Global capital cast a spell--worldview of a cancer cell
Lands deplete as we watch their wallets swell
(And they)
Drawing arbitrary lines; it’s a proven tactic world-wide
Condemned to choose you're forced to take a side
The standard play of the racial card
What if they dug in your backyard?
Would you fight? Would we see you stand on guard?
Empty promises patronize
When the actions they colonize
The broken record spins it’s no surprise
With their lives they will block the road
So check your heart and check your soul
Oh will it escalate out of control?
With their bodies they’ll block the road
I hear them say it young and old
In the ground it stays Chilcotin gold
Sample used by permission of Purple Turtle Films. See “Blue Gold”
10. Ever Light
Walk in the night we stumble, half blind
Weight of the world you place it in mind
And still, carry I
Ever the greenest gardens feed life
Ever the muted footsteps tread light
May they tread ever light
Ever an honest lyric voice I
Ever the hopeful message
May it breathe between these lines
Ever the ancient metric follow I
Metres of sacred rhythms
Unfold throughout this life
Over an epic distance--through time
Ever the songs we singing
Sing life...may they sing to this life