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Peste

by Belly of Paris

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    12" record of album with glorious artwork by Bahraini artist Dalal Al-Sindi. Includes free download on release date. Limited number.

    For Middle East orders go to muselandrecords.bandcamp.com

    Includes unlimited streaming of Peste via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 10 days

      £10 GBP or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    CD edition of the album with amazing artwork by Bahraini artist Dalal Al-Sindi, includes free download.

    For Middle East orders go to muselandrecords.bandcamp.com

    Includes unlimited streaming of Peste via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 10 days

      £6 GBP or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £4 GBP  or more

     

1.
Though I came in like a conqueror of old Here to spin shit into gold Down the sundried boulevards Past the young flaneurs Roll it over, roll it up and pick the bones And our eyes look over the city Our hands will grasp it all We’ll carve slices from the belly of Paris And there’s plenty to go round There’s plenty to go round Jealous eyes look down from crowded tenements A fever hangs in the warm air There is sweetness, there is light There is innocence to spoil Plunge our arms into its gutters Up to the elbows And our eyes look over the city Our hands will grasp it all We’ll carve slices from the belly of Paris And there’s plenty to go round There’s plenty to go round So we feign a pose of nonchalance But our fever grows with every stride How are the green? How are they blind To every sous that’s there to take? Roll it over, roll it up and pick the bones And our eyes look over the city Our hands will grasp it all We’ll carve slices from the belly of Paris And there’s plenty to go round There’s plenty to go round Though I came in like a conqueror of old…
2.
There was no snake. There was no dragon Just things that happened one after another No clouds confess or leaves reveal There was no snake that took her away from you There was no snake. There’s no Peg Powler Just a river that he was dragged under Tell every father of every daughter There was no snake There was no huldra We dressed their skeletons and made them dance Gave grace and spite to a ball of gas The cold earth can’t care if you wither Or how many skinny children you bury inside it There was no snake. There was no dragon Just men who found the quicker way Tell every mother of every son There was no snake. There was no dragon We dressed their skeletons and made them dance Gave grace and spite to a ball of gas The cold earth can’t care if you wither Or how many skinny children you bury inside it When things that happened, happened to us When he was gone and we had nothing When in our heads and hands that joined When in the eyes that fellow eyes avoid It’s plain as day, there’s no avoiding You cannot hide the truth in words There was a snake There was a dragon We saw its teeth. We did, we did The dark is full, the clouds form signs The accidents are all designed He had a meaning. He’ll never fade Look closely you can see the stars are spelling out his name Oh you’re no fool So tell me honestly You saw the same? You saw the same?
3.
Some old rude song lies under stone Such as the Sockburn Wyrm calls home With teeth made black by poison breath That sent our young men to their death The wyrm lay Sockburn town to waste It took our children young and strong It burned our houses to the dirt And left no livestock, crop or field And every trembling hand agreed The Sockburn Wyvern must be slain But who around to do the deed? Who has the valour? Who will bleed? For Sockburn which, although half-dead Must have a savior in its ranks Until John Conyers of the town Went to the church and knelt there down And pledged the Holy Ghost his son He’d see that darksome shade undone With gleaming falchion in his grip And tarnished armour on his back He set out for its savage den And there to take the wyvern’s head For every talon, every tooth There is a blade that cuts the root
4.
It’s just a numb dumb sleep It’s just a hole to crawl inside This is a sadness we can A sadness we can set aside It’s in a mirror by the beach Comes from a hometown kick This is a sadness we can A sadness we can set aside It’s where they still sleep fast And in the border stamp click This is a sadness we can A sadness we can set aside A faded vista filled with junk The tire rubber burned to threads It’s an uncertain focus There’s no fixed ending point We piss into the sunlight And throw our used cups on the pile It’s eyes still sticky from the dawn It’s contact lenses dried out Dismissed with clicking fingers Our passports bent and torn The windows close and open Our bags are searched and thrown We conceal secret hunger In case they take that too And we just need a moment To claim a climate of our own This is a sadness we can A sadness we can set aside
5.
Cable Coming 05:38
Lucky-Pierred on the highway While his blood runs under metal hunks We need to get back to Europe, before it’s too late Tied up, restrained with duct-tape As the broken AC prays From the chimneys that watch over Cleveland To the ghost towers over Manama Half constructed but complete And the red thread rears up wildly And ties off on her heart And her heart Over here the phoney war is just beginning So we drink like the world is ending There’s a message, there’s another cable coming So we drink like the world is ending In the theme bars And the dive bars And the souk bars In the hotel bars Your work is fantastic I love what you’re doing Your work is amazing I love what you’re doing So let’s get on the next plane And hope for new cities Let’s get on the next plane And hope that it works out Landscapes arrive in waves 30s menace Bones in vineyards Bars in ruins A sense of ending Safety videos in Delft pottery Calm and decent We need to get out of Europe Before it’s too late
6.
As the late snows fall on Jericho I catch flakes on black velvet To be the Great Preserver Of an elegance they won’t know Sublime! Sublime! A symmetry fixed in negative I wrench the rude contraption With gloves that creak in the keen air But all my words have sublimed And the wind whips through the beams As a youth she taught me beauty A stack of rough notation No fragile aggregation is unique as her warming smile The negative draws my tears And I am on my knees None of these unique crystals is as unique as she Sublime! Sublime! A symmetry fixed in negative When on a lonely night in Jericho A Great Preserver steps outside into the snow When he falls Will his bones Warm and sublime Into the ether Like her? Up into heaven they go…
7.
Hechizado 03:43
They called me spellbound, and it sounds so beautiful Though they bell, book and candle it out of me. I can chew when I dream, and I can fight when I dream I ride and they bow… I’ll be the last of the Habsburgs I know No king should walk as I walk And on the tit for far too long She cries in the night And in the morning her eyes widen though she keeps her smile in place While I can only rictus in return With a tongue that can’t win her Words spit and mangle my replies When they question all my devils but it’s only me who answers I’ll be the last of the Habsburgs I know (She’s not a vessel I can fill with earth/ She’s not a vessel for an empty prayer/ There is no end to this. No end to this)
8.
With an air rifle over her shoulder On a day that’s half asleep Macie shot the barn owl ‘cos she could And all those fat-arsed old men Won’t stand a chance Not a chance Oh autumn was a bastard The same as spring but now she’s sprung and they won’t find her She will lead them deep into the dark “Oh she’s gotta go She’s gotta go We got feathers, we’ll have bones She’s gotta go We can’t create But we can destroy And when we find that girl we’ll show them where their money goes to work Macie it’s time…” So they gave her a dashing alias Published pictures she made at school Questioned the dog-walkers at the beach “There was nothing we could have done There was nothing we could have done!” Because autumn was a bastard The same as spring but now she’s sprung and they won’t find her She will lead them deep into the dark And who’ll care when she’s a grinning picture on a page With a feather saluting in her hair? And who’ll know what she washed away ‘Til the river wears the wires down? “Oh she’s gotta go She’s gotta go She’s got the headlines in her eyes She’s gotta go We can’t create But we can destroy And there’s no forest we won’t search and there’s no river we won’t dredge Macie it’s time…”
9.
And the plains stretch out ahead And a swirl of sand that forces eyes to close One day you’ll turn your head and see him He was born on the second you were born Coalescing out of dirt A stalking bird hatched from a small brown egg. Eyes, blinking in the sun And when you crawl, he crawls slightly faster Spindle legs scratch out crude pictograms on the dry soil A slow lurch, step in step. Harryhausing frame by frame. A fraction closer every day Never even knowing why A stalking bird who has your name A stalking bird who has your name On two feet--- Fitful burst of manic speed Towards settees and TVs Godlike parents call you on And when you grow and you find Some pretty girl as scared as you And feel that life has just begun He just keeps surging, like a tide towards you A spun eye-stalk Strait is the gate, he steps inside A fraction closer every day Never even knowing why A stalking bird who has your name A stalking bird who has your name To a prime, and faster than you’ll ever be, He’s faster than he’ll ever be Get to know him, to hear of him, some will rush to meet him. Takes them all under black wings Years run low / spindle legs slow He’ll slow too, / slower than you. At last you turn / and give your hand As to a friend / you always knew
10.
Boys 06:51
These boys haven’t got enough for what she’s got, yet They just haven’t got enough for what she’s got, yet But when she’s calling we’ll come running we can’t hold back When she’s calling we’ll come running we can’t hold back Boys haven’t got enough for what she’s got, yet So if you’re holy, just be holy Don’t be flinching when the devil calls ‘Cos every good man is just a minute away Every good man is just a minute away Your sandals flapping at your feet As you swing your legs from the bonnet Comes from a primal ache You. Oh when will we be ready? So don’t be holy, don’t be holy Can’t you see we’re in up to our necks? And as she raises her head you know you’re certain to stay A curtain closes and it’s too late anyway Boys haven’t got enough for what she’s got, yet We just haven’t got enough for what she’s got, yet But when she’s calling we’ll come running we can’t say no When she’s calling we’ll come running we can’t say no These boys haven’t got enough for what she’s got, yet What she’s got, yet Your sandals flapping at your feet As you swing your legs from the bonnet Comes from a primal ache You. Oh when will we be ready?

about

Belly of Paris are an Anglo-Indo-Argentine-Palestinian-Hungarian band formed by musician Daniel Cochran after moving from the UK to Bahrain.

Peste is an album about the ambitious and the resigned; the avaricious and the meek. With imagined characters and themes drawn from history and literature, this is a fatalistic album reflecting uncertain times, driven by Nigo's bright brass and Prest’s scuzzy tones, marshalled by Sharma and Villarroel, and crafted by Sharabi's soft soprano and Cochran's rich, world-weary baritone.

credits

released November 4, 2016

Belly of Paris are:
Daniel Cochran – vocals, chord organ, guitar, xylophone, synth, piano
Szabolcs Nigo – trumpet, bassoon
Robert Prest – guitars
Yasmin Sharabi – vocals, piano, keyboards, xylophone
Sumit Sharma – drums, percussion, synth
Carlos Villarroel – bass

with help from:
Noor Azeemi Kurjiah – violin
Ben Hopkinson – piano, organ

All songs written by Daniel Cochran

Spooker Rekkids 2016
Museland Records 2016

Engineered by Maarlin Paaresh Swamy at Autonomous Studios in Gudaibiya
with Daniel Cochran and Sumit Sharma
Produced by Stephen Norman at Soul Fire Sounds in UK
Mastered by James Mottershead

Cover artwork by Dalal Al Sindi @iusedtogetartsy
Cover design by Jenine Sharabi @j9sharabistudios
Insert photography by Ankita Mamgain @ankitamamgain

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Spooker Rekkids Middlesbrough, UK

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