The album started with the working title of “Fragmented Documents” a reference to an earlier album I felt this material may have had an affinity with. When I showed the new title and cover art to my partner she asked if the title was about us. Oh sad face. No. It is about accepting that the path you hoped you were on for the last decade (or three) was coming apart at the seams and nothing was going to be as assumed, as worked towards. So the music is entirely selfishly about itself (and therefore me).
As the cover art shows, this is apparently a time of the shape of things changing. Coming apart so that a new shape can be taken. A new box is needed to contain the actions. What that may be is unknown. That is disconcerting (as noted by the working title being flipped from the donor album). I have accepted I do not want to fight this anymore so I have to aim to let this drifting apart of the box that held my hopes & dreams happen as elegantly as possible.
On Bandcamp, the album is presented twice, first as a pre-mixed single file as this was how the album was designed. I then include all the individual pieces, incl the initial version of The ReRun.
As always, if you appreciate my work (and/or Indie music in general)
please be sure to purchase via my Bandcamp
as this is the only way artists like me get support for what we do.
Tracks:
- I Haven’t Got A Clue – was never intended to be anything at the start. I just felt like playing with a vocoder and this is what came out when I had to sing (using the term loosely) the voice part. Despite being impressively unfashionable I decided not to toss it away as I liked it. So it sat in the box.
- The ReRun – has two versions. This is the rework that became the album version as the initial aim, which I think I managed terribly well, was to write something the complete opposite of what would get nice feedback from other music-making types. Again I couldn’t let go of the piece so decided to rework it a bit to better fit the feel of the album once the other tracks were done. Immediately these two tracks had to lead the album off; a statement that this record is not about pleasing others but documenting the time (as per a favorite quote from Jackson Browne).
- Hungry Gods & New Men – I had already started to pull my energies away from the music scene and all it entailed in battling fruitlessly with a situation I already described online as “people these days all see themselves as a Pantheon Of One so others are totally irrelevant, except as Sims-like peons that come by to deliver some expected-deserved service to the God, then cease to exist.”
- The Walkaway – was the track that helped me realize what this album/time was about. I had consciously pulled back out of a few Facebork Groups after the usual insult cycle from a few people who have no work to show but an overarching need to abuse people who do. I did not want this to seem an angry piece so made it a bit pretty.
- Elegantly Drifting Apart – realizing that this was the time to let the shape of my dreams – my expected outcomes – go, become diffuse. End. There is no point fighting past a certain point. This was it.
- Passengers On the Currents – I just wanted to write something about moving with the universe rather than my own perceived destinations. It became the loveliest track on the album. I know that alone will offend many but it is my record and this is what wanted to be recorded in this diary.
- Question No. 28 – had no plan as it was started. It needed a name and this is what was there. I admit that I cribbed the name a bit from a Boy George song. In hindsight, I think I realized that this album was about being tired of being told what I could and could not be to be acceptable as a musician & mix engineer. Art has to reflect the maker, not the rules of those who only destroy.
- The Shifting Heart – I admit is pretty arch as I deliberately laid out a very dense Key Scale which by most expectations is out of tune. Therefore the piece asks for an open mind that allows the listener to accept it for what it is. It also represents how I have felt in constantly trying to please shifting sands (that do not want to be pleased).
- Cold’s Cold – initially the name was chosen because I was deliberately making very cold digital sounds for the piece. It is a reference to a line from a very early song of mine, Anthem “You gotta see cold’s cold, there’s no other way”.
As always, if you appreciate my work (and/or Indie music in general)
please be sure to purchase via my Bandcamp
as this is the only way artists like me get support for what we do.
Benedict Roff-Marsh 
