Releases
Taking Crude Mountain by Sophistry
This is a work of musical theatre set to a mélange of 70s musical elements. The title for this work derives from Brian Eno’s infamous Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy (1974) which is a comic song about an imaginary band of commandos trekking through an unspecified jungle on a mission that is never really made clear. There’s also bits that are like Genesis’ Battle of Epping Forest and even a bit featuring clichés from the horn section from the hit band, Chicago. In fact, it’s all very absurd (like the war itself). But the main inspiration is the Wet Tee-Shirt Competition off Frank Zappa’s Joe’s Garage (1979) because that’s the sort of musical theatre this is.
Taking Crude Mountain by Sophistry did not emerge out of any kind party pris or prejudice. It came out the way it did because we hate being lied to. Yeah, we know all about the higher amorality of the state – and to a point we are okay with that. But the higher amorality of the state is only legitimate when the interests of citizens are being advanced (and in this case that’s not true). What’s more it’s all just more of the same, more of the stupid mania that is making the history of humanity into a bloodthirsty tragedy.
Pharmakeus
Words & Music by Pharmakeus
Vocals by Chella Elaine & Pharmakeus
Other Voices by Warwick Poulsen & Art Neuro
Guitars by Pharmakeus & Art Neuro
Keyboards & Programming by Pharmakeus
Cover design by Tim Ireland from Bloggerheads
Recorded at Brackwood Sound & Pharmakeus’ house
Mixed by Art Neuro & Mastered by Tim Newsom
Produced by Coelacanth & The Fiction Engine
© 2006–2007 Coelacanth All Rights Reserved
Russia
The song is a remnant from our collective youths. Over the years we’ve recorded various versions of it: live and in the garage; in the lounge room, basement and the kitchen. Some have used garbage cans for drums. Other versions have had Motown-style Apple loops playing in a furious funky groove, a cassette tape jam of Pharmakeus and his short-wave radio dubs and so on.
This version is more of an orthodox approach to the song being a song. We’ve kept coming back to it, probably because of our own mystic awe at the great, unknown, Tundra, that was even further away during the Cold War. Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky said all art is an eternal yearning for beauty, and for some reason we yearned for the Tundra and Taiga forests of Russia.
Art Neuro
Words & Music by Pharmakeus & Art Neuro
Vocals by Chella Elaine
Bass by Art Neuro
Guitars by Pharmekeus & Art Neuro
Keyborads & Programming by Art Neuro
Mixed by Art Neuro & Mastered by Tim Newsom
Production by Coelacanth & The Fiction Engine
© 2006–2007 Coelacanth productions. All Rights Reserved
Fat Dub
We’re not saying anything controversial when we say King Tubby was probably one of the all-time most important people in the evolution of modern music. Our starting point for FatDub was thinking about how King Tubby was shot for no good reason and the absurdity, if not the irony, of that. For even though he was called King, he was not assassinated.
That title — King — which was given because of King Tubby’s importance to music, rather than political power, got us thinking about the eternal triangle between kings, assassins and artists, or executive power, terrorism and persuasion. So we started working on this material with an idea about making a dub kind of song about power, violence and the role of the artist when confronting that relationship. FatDub is the outcome from all those ideas.
But this is not really dub music. It’s a hybridised sort of music fusing some prog rock vocal arrangements inspired by Yes and Nice with melodies and beats derived from King Tubby and Bob Marley.
Words & Music by Pharmakeus
Vocals by Chella Elaine
Guitars, Keyboards & Programming by Pharmakeus
Cover Design and Artwork by Chella Elaine and Graham Brown
© 2006–2007 Coelacanth Productions. All Rights Reserved
Downloads
Taking Crude Mountain
by Sophistry 5:57
MP3 [5.9MB]
Russia 3:43
MP3 [3.3MB]
Fat Dub 5:20
MP3 [7.4MB]
Taking Crude Mountain by Sophistry Cover Artwork