THE FLOOD

NOTE

I was in a Cambridge-based jam-band that only recorded on binaural earphones. We were called The Flood and our music was like dark music as in dark matter or anti-music. The earphones were my idea to invent but I didn’t implement the idea myself. My Floyd was very Freud, and you can listen to the music on rhythm guitarist Tom Woodhall’s Soundcloud page. I would like to talk you through the album song by song.

I

THE BLASTS

‘The Blasts’ has no words - it is a bad monkey funky prog rock or even math rock rhythm and riff sequence I wrote when I was living in the shed. It makes a nice way to begin an album, as an instrumental for a band that were badass as Hella and Shellac. You’d have to listen to it yourself rather than trust my film of music, and for that we have the internet, thankfully.

II

MANTRA OF A MADMAN

Well, I was going to say this number has no words but that would be a lie. It has one line, a mantra. I inverted the Great I Can, I Am from Venice Beach, 1967 into the mantra “I Am, I Can,” because it had to be that way round for the earphones. Paul and I are singing it in major harmonies, and it’s said to be one of the most beautiful moments on a very beautiful record. I say record but my feelers are out and my Google search engines are primed and bring back news that what we had was actually an algorithm more than an album!

III

F # MINOR

Well, this is an instrumental by the Flood, which was recorded on earphones in the middle of the night in Cambridgeshire. Wolf aka Agent G (who procured the earphones from his bro and was our drummer) came up with this weird detuning (we were always detuning guitars) and h-a-n-d-e-d me the guitar, whereupon I jammed around for a bit until I knew what I was doing then I said “right I’m ready” and Tommo was on bass and Agent G on drums and we recorded this number, this instrumental jam which is said to be the Flood’s best song, one where we got the cat from Piper just right. I mean what is the street-name for the drug ‘Ecstasy’ when you start to detune the guitar strings all the way down? For me, F sharp minor is the answer to that question… and the point this song is trying to make. Whether or not Agent G knew that when he handed me the guitar in the F Sharp minor detuning I cannot say – but I would not put it past him. I cannot even say if I knew it when Tommo later asked me what the song was called and I said “F Sharp Minor.” Whatever the case it seems an almost unbearably beautiful piece and especially so for having something behind the music. I would also like to say that in The Flood we kind of posited the idea that O is the key of water and its soul-assuaging sound, and that is beautiful too – so all told we had a lot going on. When voices later told me to lose the book or the guitar, maybe there was already no choice by then.

IV

THE WARNING

Going to meet with the Otherness,

best go get a party dress,

play a stone, live in the wilderness,

I'm going to beat with the Otherness.

Suddenly their brain is an alien visitation,

suddenly I am the imposter againe,

lying in secret wait of myself,

knife ready to treat the pain.

V

VOODOO ECHO

Well, I say this number is by The Flood but at one point I am massacring Jimi Hendrix which seems looking back to be folly to me now. The best bit about this song is that we – or rather I - through patience and spontaneity alike – manage to incorporate as much feedback and static as is possible onto the binaural earphone album, where this number goes in at number 5. Credit to Tommo for naming the song especially considering he wasn’t even playing on this number! Such a thing is typical of the Flood’s modus operandi.

VI

HUNGER

I e I e I e have I e I e I e have

I e I e I e have I have Hunger

I'm a sick magnet I e I e I e I'm in want

maybe all I need is a new pair of shades

I'm a craving slave for you

your pleasure's dust your pleasure's just

your pleasure's just your suffering's bait

it's a sucker's fate for you

escape escape escape escape

your home your clothes and all you know

leave no footprint in the snow it's just a photo

escape escape escape your name

your stain your skin your dead routine

for the pristine dream for her

I'm going to get your freshness back

plug my senses in the mains

it's just a bloodrush to my brains

I'm going to get pretty much f***ed up

flee this world on a midnight plane

dance with the aliens and the insane.