1. |
10,000 Years
03:38
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How do you talk to someone
Ten thousand years away
How do you listen to someone
Ten thousand years away
Start simple
And stay there
Do you hold up your hands
Do you stretch out your neck
Do you shatter the landscape
And melt down what's left
Do you howl at the moon
Eyes red and face white
What goes on the cave wall
How to explain
Here my hand
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2. |
Heaven Is Real
03:33
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What blind spots were drawn out long ago
No-go zones majestic madness
Green and pleasant tumors and sores
Could this be what all the fuss is about
Unconscious minds and teething mouths
Keep these places clear of trespassers
Be blind
Be safe
You don’t want to know
A thickly patinated warning sign
A monument to mark quiet eternal
So it seems we see and hear it all
Instruments with blindness built right in
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3. |
Scratches
03:43
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Run your fingers
Over the scratches
Around my eyes
They have shape
Even eyeballs
I am blind
Run your fingers
Over the scarring
Across my chest
A heart is in there
They took out the rest
Please touch me in the dustless dark
It has been so long
Run your fingers
Over the absence
Where torso meets leg
There’s nothing there now
What’s the purpose
Without the play
Run your fingers
Over the carvings
Beneath my feet
Does the light
From your pale lantern
Let you see
I’ve lived a half-life
These scratches are text
I lived a half-life
They tell you what happened
They tell you what’s next
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4. |
Excavator
04:45
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We dug this pit
A place to pack our tools
In salt and earth
They can cool
I saw them carving
Some kind of face
In slabs of stone
That I helped place
Excavator
Something about it
Something made me squirm
Something about it
Like a worm
Yeah we buried it
We buried it all
Our radiant absurdity
We buried it all
One hundred million
Two hundred million
Three hundred million
More
Four hundred million
Five hundred million
Six hundred million
More
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5. |
No Mercy
03:03
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Where is my master
The good hand that fed me
The soft hand that caressed
The firm hand that trained
Where is my master
I stared at him all day
I waited by the door
While we was gone away
One day he left and never came back
I pulled at my chain
I pulled at my chain
And now we run
And now we run
We ate the little ones
And now we run
And now we run
The masters have all gone
And now we run
And now we run
I drag my chain
And now we run
And now we run
Lashing in the rain
Where is my master
I search for him all day
I wait for him no more
And when I find him:
No mercy
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6. |
Puffballs
03:02
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Did we make you
Just make you up
Planted the seeds
Covered them up
Another dawn
Spring of the world
Like a mushroom
Sweats and unfurls
They glow and grow
Up to the sun
Forget the means
Just father-son
Puffballs and spores
Clusters of dust
Burst in the wind
And smother us
Pop like balloons
And down we go
Did you mold us
Of breath and clay
Planted us seed
Hide them away
How we labour
We need to know
Lungfuls of dust
And down we go
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7. |
Pictogram
02:56
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A hand with a plan
Buried in the sand
Hello
A silhouette of blood
Ochre in the stone
Hello
Attached to a man
Attached to a woman
Hello
Reduced to a line
They are what survive
Hello
Just wanna say
Just wanna say
Just wanna say
Hello
We were flesh and bone
Here it is in stone
Hello
We were here
We were here
We were here
We were here
Hello
Just wanna say
To someone far away
Just wanna say
Hello
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8. |
Hotspot
04:27
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I see a new heaven
I see a new earth
From where I am standing
In squalor and dirt
High places of sunshine
Valleys of shade
Clear water to wash
All weariness away
A new heaven
A new heaven
I see a new heaven
Through the saltlands
Past the strange signs
Scratches on shattered stone
Long left behind
I walk up a valley
Meadows of green
I drink from a river
The water is clean
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9. |
Colour & Song
04:28
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Why is nobody here
I don't understand
I don't understand
Why is nobody here
I don't understand at all
The trees are laden with fruit
And colour and song
And colour and song
The trees are laden with fruit
I don't understand at all
I'm feeling so alive
No one could ever die
Not here
Not here
The juice is sweet on my tongue
This heavenly place
This heavenly place
The juice is sweet on my tongue
I don't understand at all
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10. |
Nevada
02:58
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Hunkered in a foxhole
An angel came down
To earth
Filled the sky with halo
And I saw the light
When an angel came down to earth
Dust through my face
Light through my hand
I can see the shadow of my bones on the sand
Four score year or so
Wasn't that my due
But an angel came down to earth
I just had to reach out
Silly me
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Merlin Ball Vancouver, British Columbia
Merlin Ball draws on many musical atmospheres to create a singular space and mood. Net result: indie-driven stuff that blazes along under sombre skies and brilliant sunrises. How do you talk to someone 10,000 years away? This is Merlin Ball's attempt.
Merlin Ball recommends:
DRIFT Series 1 - Complete
by Underworld
Amazing stuff. It does not get better than Underworld.
go to album
One Cello x 16: Natoma
by Zoe Keating
Got this album a couple years ago and love it. Dreamy, percussive, tuneful.
go to album
The music and experimentation coming out of Hel Audio is exciting and very, very cool. Heard about this particular artist via the 99% Invisible podcast a few years ago. Ok Ikumi is go-to chill music.
go to albumIf you like Merlin Ball, you may also like:
California’s Fawns of Love write heavenly pop songs surrounded by cloudlike layers of synth and tied up in silvery guitar lines.
go to album
Castlebeat’s “VHS” offsets bright, jangly songs with smoky, lo-fi production, giving their pie-eyed melodies a sense of mystery.
go to album
Leucovorin Rescue b/w What Is Owed
by The True Faith
Boston goth/post-punk band True Faith offer two punchy, hooky, perfectly melodramatic cuts on this new 7-inch.
go to album
