Sons of Selina - Nour D'Oui
Cat No: DELEC CD/LP 025
Formats:
Release Date: 22nd August 1994
[Track Listing] [Lyrics]
[Credits] [Reviews]
[Sons Of Selina Home Page]
Track Listing
- Climb - 5:23 (Sons of Selina) - lyric
- Life Is But - 7:08 (Sons of Selina) - lyric
- Existing Services - 6:32 (Sons of Selina)
- Gamoto Manopano - 5:50 (Sons of Selina)
- * Of The First Water - 6:15 (Sons of Selina) - lyric
- * Once Every So Often - 4:22 (Sons of Selina)
- 4 + 20 - 5:48 (Sons of Selina) - lyric
- * Growing Bold - 6:41 (Sons of Selina)
- Anxiety - 4:57 (Sons of Selina) - lyric
- It's A Boy - 4:48 (Sons of Selina) - lyric
- On A Promise - 7:57 (Sons of Selina) - lyric
- Dreamshadow - 4:18 (Sons of Selina) - lyric
( * Extra Tracks on CD)
Lyrics
Facing a brick wall my mind seeks answers to it all
What can I achieve before my fall?
Can there be achievement in a world that cannot last?
You live until bereavement puts your life into the past
Tales of strength and stamina will fall upon deaf ears
It's a long way down my fingers bleed beneath the strain
I haul my bodyweight across the dangerous terrain
The strength of my ambition keeps me blind to all the pain
I just keep pushing I just keep climbing 'til the world is my domain
I won't live forever and my memory shall die
The thought still brings a tear to my eye
Will I be remembered if I touch the distant sky
Tales of great ambition to be told after I die
Is that why I'm alive to see my story in a book
Is there time for me to turn around and look and see that
Have I the will to keep what I create?
Do I have the strength to love, the right to hate?
Do you think it's all a game, do you think you're not insane?
See the mule's might and feel the pain.
When your life is put on hold when you're forced into a mould
When you'repushed out in the night when your face is out of sight
When you bleed with all your heart when you finish at the start
When you're playing on my mind when you seek but do not find
When you knock the nail in when you act upon a whim
When your battles are for fun when the day has just begun
When your silent anger cries when the day has just begun
When your silent anger cries when you dance befre my eyes
When you live just for today when I hear you say you're
Dreaming of a life that cannot be
You live your life from day to day in a dream reality
I am creeping through your skin I am looking from within
I am seeking with my eyes I am feeling the despise
I am edging to the door I am sensing your abhor
I am trudging through your sweat I am aching and I fret
I am using up my dues I am searching here for clues
I am reeling round to pain yet I simply feel the same
I am longing for an end I am waiting for a trend
I am slowly giving in and now I'm dreaming.
Isn't life just wonderful, isn't life a blast
The concrete looks so colourful but ten the acid doesn't last
Giving tea and sympathy for the curate of the day
A conscience of immorals making sure that you will p(r)ay
The assuring view of a vacant smile
As you're cruising down the paradise mile (aisle)
But there's better things to do with your time than
Turn on tune in and stand in line.
Singing your praises whilst ringing your neck
A strong personality what did you expect?
Credited phone calls with value of need
Diluting the colour, the race and the creed
Pelting the mott, the beefburger of love
Grinning intently as you push as you shove
Forlorning your cherubs with a roaming eye
23 blackbirds and you've got your pie
The paying host where others have lain
One more could extinguish the flame
Beg forgiveness, beg for her name
Dig in deep and shoot for fame
Praising your singers whilst necking your ring
A great expectation, a personal twin
Needing the credit, the breath on the phone
Racing the creedence, diluting the home
A mottle of beef, of love and of pelt
Intended smiles which are forced as they're felt
Eyeing forlorners which are destined to roam
Pie equals 24 birds not at home
We are the people from the government,
We've come to see just what you want
You complain about the system that we made for you
Well we're gonna see what we can do
We'll build a wall and we'll build it thick
We'll make you think you're a little sick
So you'll come into our cell without hesitation
And we can ask you lots of questions
You're a square peg but we'll make you fit
Although deep inside it might hurt a bit
We'll give you little pills to take away the pain
And the system you hate won't seem the same
We'll help you choose help you decide
But then there's always suicide
It's running through your mind it's making all of your thoughts blind
It's running riot in your head it's making you wish you were dead
You feel it jumping on your back it's on the counter-attack
It's creeping underneath your skin you obey it's every want and whim
It's leaping round your brain it makes you hopelessly insane
Yes you're permanently sad, anxiety... think you're mad.
The meaningless of your life cuts like a knife
Stabs like a knife in your back
The screaming whispers alone carry the stone
Carry the stone in the sack
We were so happy together
I'm driving round in circles I'm going down the drain
You're swimming in a whirlpool whilst playing your sad game
He's rolling out the dice and counting luck on luck
We're sliding from the limelight like water off a duck
I'm taking in the bullshit and I'm choking on the smoke
You're laughing at the punchline but you didn't get the joke
We're looking for dead shadows and expecting more to come
I'm impatient on a promise and I tap my fingernails
Your fearing is a failure, what if it all should fail
He's wishing he was something and another one of me
We're actors in a playdream it's the king and I and he
I'm resting on my laurels yet I'm hardy just the same
You're reflecting on your pocket and how to cope with fame
He's staring at the picture then he stabs the knife in quick
We're keeping tight closed circles it's our very own new clique
I try to shun complacence away from contentness
You're worried about worrying and getting in a mess
He's made a shrine of worship but he hates his homemade god
We're playing down the glory 'til all the pride is shod
I'm laying down foundations I'm securing future needs
You're the rosebrush of the garden but the garden's full of weeds
He's run back to the starting line but mistakes are still being made
We've bought the bed we've slept in it but will our dreams now fade
You're sleeping on sly razors stab yourself in the back
Tonight you're on the menu place your body on the rack
Your head is on the meat dish there's an orange in your smile
You're playing the court jester entertain us for a while
The mandolin has no way in the outdoor is now closed
You're trapped within your poetry, the song, the verse, the prose
You're seeking for forgiveness but forgivers don't forsake
You've played your part and eaten it... now give me back my cake.
Ego inflation of a wasted brain
No more excuses no more showing me how
Defending the cause before the attacking's done
Resisting pockets when the war has been won
Rising above the diminishing peers
Muddling the anxiety and fears
Mind fucking in tangents of no real aims
Insulting intelligence for pathetic gains
No concept of reality within a four walled domain
Tipping the tongue with no feeling of shame
The thesis of points proven but of hypothetical guilt
Take one from two and the empire will wilt
Meet in the middle and sheath the knife
Or shut up and put up and get on with your life.
Credits
Recorded at RRS 7/8/93 to 9/9/93 except "Life Is But" at Rockcliffe 5/1/93 to 7/1/93 and "Anxiety" at RRS 14/2/92 to 21/1/93.
Mastered at Rockcliffe, Llandudno 29/9/93.
Remastered at BBC Radio One, Manchester 26/10/93.
Written, composed, mixed and produced by the Sons of Selina.
All lyrics reproduced by kind permission of Delerium Music.
Press Reviews
- Metal Hammer October 1994.
- Organ August 1994.
- Atomic June 1994.
- Rock 'n' Reel October 1994.
- Buzz Factory September 1994.
- Crohinga Well Summer 1994.
- The Prisoner March 1995.
- Guilfin October 1994.
Metal Hammer
BIZARRE yet enchanting hybrid of swirling psychedelia and more aggresive punky overtones from hitherto unknown Welsh outfit signed to the excellent Delerium label. Kind of like a Hawkwind for the 90s.
Organ
Quite a mixed bag from the Sons of Selina... some glorious space rock that fits somewhere between Omnia Opera at their best and Magic Mushroom Band, with a hint or two of Webcore's more energetic moments here there... classic forward-moving space food for Hawkheads. Long winding interstellar jams that fly through the ether. Then some of it dips a toe into a space rock crossover and comes out sounding like no one else... maybe if someone like Scum of Toytown were to make a record with Hawkwind and add a whole lump of prog rock in there too, a tantalisingly original combination of sounds giving Sons of Selina something of their own. Some of it gets more electronic and experimental with an almost spoken word landscape... sounds almost like Pram actually. If someone was to ask to hear a typical Sons of Selina track it would be impossible to play them something, the band are all over the place. There is, however, a thread that holds it together so it does work... it's sounding more like New Model Army right now! then you turn over to side two and it gets all ambient again... Then some space punk... then some festi sounding swirling keyboards... It all adds up to a rather good album.
Atomic
The 'Sons' produce an anger fuelled brew of punchy guitars, psychedelic warps & a big, big sound on the opening track "Climb". There are however, mellower moments that just simply breath intensity, "Gamoto Manpano", an instrumental dream, that rips a decidedly sweet & beckoning guitar.
Whereas "Anxiety" takes this blue-print one step further, mainly due to the incensed vocals, full of sheer hatred.
For pure acid bliss you should try "Dreamshadow" or even "On A Promise" which is a delicate overture before tearing into an ecstatic climax. A sound of thunder - with ranting vocals, catering for everyone's taste, via the New Model Army-ish soundscape, the ambient textures with their psychedelic tinge or the vaguely prog rock, yet biting guitar lines. Should be everyone's 'cup of tea', especially if it's of the mushroom variety. (9. Lizard)
Rock 'n' Reel
Delerium Records is fast gaining a reputation as one of the finest psychedelia, freakbeat, space-rock, ambient labels in the UK with a growing roster that includes some of the scenes leading lights.
Wales Sons of Selina are purveyors of straight down the line space-rock, that also strongly displays a punk style rawness and the crackling distortion fired guitar sound so loved by that genre. The keyboards though are used to particular effect giving "Life Is But" a spectacular presence, that is lost amongst gothic atmosphere that pervades the whole album does five it a strangely sinister beauty.
The inventiveness of "Once Every So Often", spoken words over a rhythmic psychedelic soundscape and the melodic violin coloured "It's A Boy" display another side to their collective talents on what is an album capable of many surprises and holding hidden delights that makes the journey of discovery well worthwhile.
Buzz Factory
I'm not sure what to make of this. Agit-paganism or the new space-rock politics. It's sort of experimental rock with punk lyrics and loads of electronic effects. They may be from Wales but they're a million miles away from The Manics. Stop searching your soul and tap into The Sons of Selina; they'll do it for you.
Crohinga Well
The Sons of Selina are a Welsh band, founded by Neil Birchill who spent several years of his early youth in various punk rock groups. Some claim that "punk's not dead"; possible, but it didn't stop Neil from evolving musically towards a more matured and elaborate sound, without losing the energy of his earlier work. So far we got some insight into The Sons of Selina's achievements with two 7" singles, "Anxiety" (1992) and "Life is But" (1993), songs that are both included on this more than 70 minutes long CD. The Sons of Selina play a hard to identify type of music: it's dark, brooding fusion between punk/new wave elements, space & progressive rock, dipped into an estranging Welsh mushroom tea. This is not happy, fluffy, trippy music but a series of dark, oppressing journey's into the twilight zone between pessimistic social observation and hypochondriac science fiction.
Not an album for the week-end hippies, but a very original and diverse collection of songs that add one more facet to the already shiny jewel of new British psychedelic music. An interesting and intriguing experience for those who dare to descend into this lysergic coal-mine. Recommended.
The Prisoner
Strangely compelling Ozrics/New Model Army/Hawkwind, add a dash of Pop Will Eat Itself and you're on the right, but strange, track. Musically the band are that guy you once met at the party you found fascinating but scary. Fascinating. Scary.
Guilfin
Punked-up space rock that knocks you flat. It dives off in all directions - with a sledgehammer. Pure energy gone mad - but not noise. Each song is infected with groove & melody and played with such aggression.
© Delerium 2000.
Delerium Records. info@delerium.co.uk