Nick Riff - Cloak Of Immortality

Cat No: DELEC CD/LP 017
Formats:

[Track Listing] [Lyrics] [Credits] [Reviews]
[Nick Riff Home Page]

Track Listing

1. Cloak of Immortality - 4:59 (N. Riff) - lyric
2. Creature Feature - 6:12 (N. Riff) - lyric
3. Way Out - 3:59 (N. Riff) - lyric
4. Staring Into Space - 2:34 (N. Riff)
5. Like A Zen Stray - 6:05 (N. Riff) - lyric
6. Something Inside - 4:10 (N. Riff) - lyric
7. Temple of Dreams - 6:24 (N. Riff) - lyric
8. Ghost - 4:44 (N. Riff) - lyric
9. Tribal Elders - 4:55 (N. Riff) - lyric
10. * From Beyond They Speak - 4:55 (N. Riff / S.E. Taylor / T. Marianetti)
11. Go Far - Go Wide - 4:53 (N. Riff / S.E. Taylor / T. Marianetti) - lyric

( * Extra Track on CD)

Lyrics

Cloak of Immortality

Come with me I'll take you where
You make your own world if you dare
Take my hand and walk with me
Share this vision we will see

The distant past or what will be
Beyond the world we can see
Are shadows of our destiny
In a cloak of immortality

Do away with all your fear
Though every second seems a year
Through this door of no return
Are all the things we live and learn

Everything we see and hear
Life and death it;s all so near
Vibrations of eternity
Free your mind and you will see.

Creature Feature

Flashpoint nerve ending here we go
Looking all around at this picture show
Feeling strange as fungus grows all over me
And I contemplate a million years of history
Electric colours vibrate behind my eyes
And I'm dancing in the air when I realise
The mumbo-jumbo energy the ancients sang
As the rhythms are provided by the purple gang

Oh-Oh living in a creature feature...

Faster than lightning, Brighter than the sun
Lying on the ground and having so much fun
Swinging in limbo, that's the place for me
Where a renegade escapes into reality
Drifting in the flow of the power sound
That shapes the air and makes me spin around
Riding on the molecules that change my face
Too many crazy things are in this place

Tell me tell me does anybody know
When it's over what do we have to show?
Nothing - Nothing and that is everything
I make my movie everyday
It's such a scary thing.

Way Out

I'm shaking in my skin
And flying in my mind
The clock is ticking loud
There's no one else around
I'm way out

The pictures on my wall
Are gateways to a place
Don't ask me for a map
Can't even find my face
I'm way out

My brain falls out my head
It wiggles on the floor
A suitcase on it's stem
I'll have to grow some more
I'm way out
I'm way out
In

Like A Zen Stray

Dancing in a trance that lasted for a thousand days
Burning incense floats in sunlit rooms
Watching clouds passing as the wind blows them away
There's a dream of something coming true

Like a Zen stray I've been running around
Inside this one idea that shapes my world
There's nothing any words can say

Wisdom is a lifetime and a lifetime is our way
Around around the circles where we play
Below the dark still waters
Where the sleeping dragon waits
A magic mirror shows the way

O descendants of Kings born of the stars
Before the very thoughts of man
The thread of your conscious being
Connects every soul and mind
Beyond the need of words
The surrender of fear into love
Becomes the light of eternity
Even now the new body of the Kings
Born of the stars before man
Clothes every being from now until
Beyond the end of time
Through multi-dimensional time
Return O holy Kings
We are robed in the stars
Through the era of mankind
We have found your meanings
Of which we cannot speak
As hyper-comprehension deals our fate
The earth goes spinning beyond our view.

Something Inside

I surround myself in light
Deflecting negativity
From a world that was no place
For anyone who seeks the key
I guess it's what I should expect
From your imposed reality
That makes it easy to forget
The gifts of our divinity

Got something inside and I just can't hide

Everyone is flesh and blood
I just try to do my best
To keep the demons from my door
That put my spirit to the test
Many times I've lost my wings
The guardian can never rest
The consequence my actions bring
To my higher self confess

(chorus)

Reflections of prohetic dreams
Manifest into this world
Static wings of magick love
Sacred heart and holy dove
Primal spark of deities
Drift through streams of memories
While holding icons to the sky
The Secret message passed you by

(chrous)

Temple of Dreams

In this place where up is down
Where the centre's all around
In a realm where nothing can be hid
The truth looks like a monster
Watching everything I've done
My heart hangs by the balance
In the sun

In the vortex centre swirl
Where you are you and only you
Can still your mind enough to find
Where there is nothing but the truth

Someone's trying to tell me something

Take a chance do something new
Be extreme, where there are few
Prepared to walk a path of solitude
Cross the oceans of the sky
Talk with the watchers of this world
Who know the past and shape the future too

Dance to the sound Temple of dreams
Love all around Temple of dreams

The highway ends
So I'm making my own street
Why is this mountain so steep?
There were wings on his helmet
There were wings on his feet
Now the message of his medicine's complete

Someone's trying to tell us something.

Ghost

I found your picture faded brown by time
Read the inscription - Taken in her prime

That's where I found you
Tried to call to you
My heart has broken
And now like you
I'm alone

Sometimes I see you standing in the garden
Touching flowers translucent like the wind
I heard the stories of
A little girl who drowned
Down where the waters flow
But that was long ago
And I don't think you know

I see your halo but never learned your name
One hundred years have passed
You look the same

That's where I saw you
Tried to call to you
My heart has broken
And now like you
I'm alone.

Tribal Elders

Long ago the shamen spoke, with knowledge and with dignity
Today that function's being served by salesmen preachers on TV
Once there was a vision quest and wisdom of a Holy man
Now we're searching for our seats on bus trips to disneyland
The quiet powers of the world convey the teachings of the dream
It's hard to hear the inner voice with all the gunshots and the screams
Underneath, or just beyond, the tribal elders wait to speak
They wait for those who go beyond, the ones who brave the highest peak

Meanwhile... I'm melting

I have often felt sublime, left my body far behind
Up the light beam I ascend, never knowing what I'll find
So much confusion in this world, it keeps us from the ancient dance
Stop the lies, stop the noise
Seek the tribal elders trance.

Go Far Go Wide

Everything that's in the world is yours
Be aware of what is going on
Listen to the voice inside yourself
Knowing it's the same for all mankind

Go far - Go wide
Expand your mind

Some talk of aspirations from on high
But politics avoids the voice of them
Take the time and get to know yourself
Leave the passing shadows of this world

Go far - Go wide
Expand your mind.

Credits

Personnel:

• Nick Riff - Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Lyrics.
• Steve E. Taylor - Bass Guitar.
• Thom Marianetti - Drums
• Ched Stanisic - Lead Keyboard (Track 3 & 7)
• Chris Di Santis - Percussion (Track 8 & 9)

All songs recorded and produced by John Lyon and Chris Keffer at Magnetic North Studio, Cleveland, OH. except Track 4 recorded at Oblivion Studios, Zanesville, OH.

Equipment Technician - J.D. Kimple
Front Cover Art - Louise Macaulay

Lyrics reproduced by kind permission of Cosmic Eye Music BMI.

Thanks for many reasons to: Amber Clark, Gabriel & Ashley Lyon, Steve & Thom, Jim Clevo, Alan Grandy, Melinda Root, Gallery Cafe, City Paper, Sherry Swearingen, Gary Doberstyn, Nick Hadjas, Mike Albertson, Jim Collins, Joyce Halasa, David Lucas, Mike & Mary Beth Ward, Charles Savage, Rick Day, Mr. Tornado Head, Louise Macauley, Richard Allen for help throughout.

Press Reviews

• En-Trance April 1995.
• Rock 'n' Reel 1995.
• HartbeatJuly 1995.
• I/E September 1995.
• Audion Summer 1995.
• Crohinga Well Autumn 1995.
• Rockerilla May 1995.
• Hairless Heart Herald January 1996.

En-Trance

No area without psychedelic rock! This time it is Nick Riff, who has released his new, second CD with "Cloak of Immortality". But the music sounds anything but new, which he himself calls "New Wave Psychedelic Punk". It is a rough rock'n'roll sound, modelled in best Hawkwind/early Pink Floyd 70s Marnier with space-psycho effects, organ sounds and garage feel, partly with Nik Turner-like 80s punk/New Wave influences. They are mostly powerful songs with clear rock structures which are, however, also at times overcut (?) by spacy improvisations or psycho instrumentals. But here is less experience of psychedelic epics. The song is the centre piece, with vocals, driving drums, heavily distorted guitars or electronic analog space sounds (?). And that is translated, I believe, very ambitious with good songs, and lots of heart and spirit. As I said, the print of the year date is the only thing that reminds us to the 90s. What what does it matter? One realises in this music that someone played who knows his job, and he knows it well. (TB)

Rock 'n' Reel

Nick Riff has been refining his own blend of garage based sixties punk from his home in Cleveland Ohio for nearly a decade. Through a wall of fuzzed out, psychedelic guitar, his band add their own sisties inspired musical vision, where gothic flavoured organ collides with saccharine punk and the psycho imagery of Riff's lyrics to produce an album offering a twisted musical viewpoint where the wild, and decidedly odd are celebrated.
A barrage of bona-fide classic modern psyche-rock "Cloak of Immoratlity" succeeds with its pesistent strength.

Hartbeat

A pre-release tape of Nick Riff's Cloak of Immortality has been reviewed at length in HARTBEAT 17. Finally it has come out in its intended form and it stands as firm and erect as the Empire State Building. It's an immaculate companion to the aardvarks release, signalling that there is a future for underground rock music in the post-grunge era. Nick's swirling psychedelic pop music could well claim to be a genre of its own, and with all the different textures and its multi-coloured facets it's a must for any connoisseur of wonderful and outstanding music.

I/E

Riff's mighty stiff songs uncomfortably recall the bloated excesses of the 70's in their quest for sonic sunspots. While his rhythm guitars and one-note keyboards chug along as if immersed in thickening mud, Riff tries to emulate the histrionics of the early flower-power bands of the 60's with his Donovan-like harmonies and naive melodies. The record's lo-fi sheath also strips Riff's songs of the charm he wants to seemingly elicit.

Audion

Ah, the spirit of Hawkwind, Pink Faries, and, well I could go on and on here, almost everything psychedelic British and American live on revitalised here in a fresh new-wave spiced brew. American guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Nick has gathered together a proper band for a much more refined and creative concoction than on his earlier releases, song based and catchy, with lots of riffing and spaciousness, there's no individual style, but it flows on and out with great energy that's sure to appeal to a wide audience.

Crohinga Well

We've been waiting a long time to get some fresh music from Zanesville, Ohio, but once again the result was worth the wait. Nick Riff started making music in his own private recording facilities in this late eighties. Richard Allen of Delerium discovered his songs on a tape sent to him and signed him to the budding label. His first album was the cassette "Heart of Oblivion" (1991), a forerunner of even more beautiful things to come. Next appeared the LP/CD "Freak Element" (1991), a true Pandora's Box of colourful psychedelic vibes, still created on his own home recording equipment. Richard wanted a proper studio sound for the next album and advanced Nick the money for studio time. It took him about two years to finish but the result compensates amply for the long delay, because "Cloak of Immortality" is Nick's best and most complete achievement yet. It's also the first album he recorded with a full backing: Steve E. Taylor played bass, Thom Marianetti handled the drums and Nick's songs on this album vary from the usual melodic, guitar and keyboards-dominated psych rock ("Way Out", "Temple of Dreams", "Ghost") via heavy, psyched-out guitar rock ("Like a Zen Stray", "Something Inside") to a few more unfamiliar styles: "Tribal Elders" is just stoned psychedelics based upon weird, mangled vocals and distorted guitar arrangements; "From Beyond They Speak" (the CD Bonus track) is a bizarre instrumental for some strange mushroom ritual, a fine piece of atmospheric psychedelics. Nick's third album should enable him to capture a large audience than he did so far. He worked a long time for this and he deserves it! Recommended melodic psychedelics.

Rockerilla

After a three year wait, the Wizard from Ohio provides us with the successor of "Freak Element", but not before performing a conjuring trick, just to disorientate his audience: wrapping himself in the cloak of immortallity. his solitary, multifaceted personality turns into a real band, the sound acquires new colours, with a big improvement on the percussive edge, and while the contamination of his music with the slanted features of American new-wave becomes less evident, draughts of typically English magic leak out from new cracks, unexpected yet surprisingly natural. The gesture of transformation may be captured in the elegant harshness of the opening title track, an extroverted garage meteor, sustained by a distinctive organ riff, is gently deviated out of it's orbit on an eccentric psychedelic route. From now on, the game has started, music flows powerful and light, just one step away from the edge of vertigo punk chasms and electromagnetic storms, granting itself only a couple of quiet episodes; Bevis Frond's electric breath blows vigorous on "Creature Feature" and "Like a Zen Stray", while Treatment's psychopathic garage punk emerges from the turmoil of "Way Out", from the cosmic surf of "Something Inside", from the ancient call of "Tribal Elders". The Expanded line-up allows an increased confidence in exploring new instrumental combinations, so "Temple of Dreams" is granted a bright lovely piano, "Ghost" the fairy wand of mellotron, while "From Beyond They Speak" enbraces a spell of electric details laying a polyrhythmic trace thereupon, thus mapping territories adjacent to the Strobe galaxy. By now, enchantment has taken us by the hand, leading us in a dangerous but wonderful trip in and outside ourselves, evoking spirits, questioning oracles and experimenting combinations of arcane elements, when "Go Far-Go Wide" promotes the definitive bloom of conscience, while we ascend in spirals of ultra light pop sounds; anyone else wish to try the cloak for size?? Enrico Ramunni

Hairless Heart Herald

The American secret weapon called Nick Riff received a budget and a band after releasing Freak Element on his own. The result is one bar of acid rock 'n' roll augmented with the power of the punk movement finished with a nice dose of psychedelics. The long title-track gets you in the mood by using a fair amount of 'distorted guitars' plus the sound of a little toy organ which was so typical for the psychedelic movement in the sixties. The nice, gentle, acoustic Staring Into Space lets us witness a more modest Riff, the multi-instrumentalist swimming in a pool of fuzz, reverb and other typical highlights. For those people who think the entire repertoire of the Byrds is too mellow and that of the Who too hard, Nick Riff is just the guy for you.

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