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sea of japan (you hear my voice) [2012 edit]

from underfall yard (sketches 2010 - 2015) by ed lofstedt

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about

This is by far the most ambitious songwriting I'd attempted at the point I recorded this over a glorious few days with Darren just before I moved out of Oxford.

It builds a grim, ambient mood with a heartbeat pulse. Then it stacks layers of instrumentation into a steadily building throb, before opening out with skipping percussion and glockenspiels and finally a racing bass guitar and toms.

Once the energy has burst from the song, it blisses down into a post-rock motif with a spoken-word coda.

The lyrics are almost stream-of-consciousness and paint out a part-cynical and part-uplifted bitter reflection on what my mind was cycling through aged 25. It's all out there.

I love this song - and so whilst this demo is here for you to enjoy now, expect to find a souped up version on my new EP, released in early 2017.

lyrics

they threw us into orbit but they'll have to drag us back
cuz we've been turning into peacocks
brushing up our wildcat acts, and throwing all our weakness into sacks
then in the water cuz we're bored right through

and recently we're finding that our parents lives and ours
were really more or less identical albeit drawing different scars
our history is all that we are

we're sipping our sweat from the sewers
we buzz like flies at the roadside, and I

I am blissful and whiskey tonight, candlelit and quiet
sail away on the dark Asian sea, and empty out my mind

the matador is leading but unless he leaves he'll always lose
so if you think I'm quitting, well I'm winning
cause I got to choose

I'll follow the arrow until it drops, secure in the knowledge
that when my heart stops I'll be more grateful for the devils I know
than jealous of the angels I don't

sail away on the dark Asian sea, and empty out my mind
we're more landfill the longer we live, but time is on our side

I feel like the offcuts of divine experiments gone wrong
but bring me the darkness and I'll show you where the light belongs

let the dreamers fly higher than their high-rise homes
and polish the concrete up into chrome
cuz all of your anger is yours to spray
in whichever direction you choose to face

it's all the eccentric excitement of youth, but never let go of the truth
you'll be more grateful for the devils you know
than jealous of the angels you're sick that you don't
you claim that they'll love you, you know that they won't
they'll cut you adrift and they'll leave you here to

float, so float
on the dark Asian sea
I am blissful and whiskey tonight

so lay down your arms, take the hands of St. Peter
a glance to the ground with a breath that propels you upwards
cut all your ties to crooked Casanovas
forget all their language, you could never understand it
jettison all the bones that you've broken
they're calling you in so come when you hear my voice
you hear my voice

credits

from underfall yard (sketches 2010 - 2015), released December 4, 2016
music and lyrics © ed lofstedt 2012
guitars/vocals - ed lofstedt
bass/keys/percussion/programming - Darren Fellerdale

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ed lofstedt Bristol, UK

Plays folk. Channels post-rock. Dreams post-punk. Eats pop.

"One of the UK's best up and coming songwriters...a credit to his craft." - All Will Be Well

Ed channels electronica and post-rock through his folk songs, drawing in huge dynamic shifts, spellbinding stagecraft and bewitching lyrics.

Ed's new EP 'sweep me away' is out now!
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