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Simple Answers

by Charlie Looker

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    Double LP, with gatefold jacket, and double-sided die-cut poster.

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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Poison Darts, Pleasures of a Normal Man, and Simple Answers. , and , .

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1.
2.
Ritual Fire 05:43
Ritual fire, will I keep you in your sacred place? Or will your ravenous tongues lick my world away? Lick my fragile world away Primitive stone, you hold demons that my breed don’t know Open the bloom of your cloud and gas my lungs to Hell Gas my tender lungs to Hell Now that I know the secret of a poison that feels like truth How can I hold at bay this terminal answer? The struggle to remember the struggle to forget How can the eternal not return? Never again, always again Ritual fire, tempt me with your violence Reason pours from my mouth you mock me with silence And you say, “A real man: no words A bad man: no thoughts A hard man can crush the Jew inside and live alone on danger and play Nothing more than power play….” Ritual liar, is this farewell to the chaos realm? Or just a softening hour before the next great blaze? Ritual liar, your tongue burns me with the whisper ‘Yes’ Burn the world with your eternal breath Make me hard, whole and hard Never again, always again
3.
Golden Flesh 05:25
To open golden flesh like the ray of a new dawn Wheel of the great fire Before the next one comes purify me Is your skin truly mine? Or just borrowed treasure, borrowed time Deep in your walls I’ll cower and hide Will I burn or will I shine? Do I look right? Not tonight Not in your golden light The primal vertigo at the ladder’s northern wrung Am I worthy? The simple fact of blood pulls me backwards DNA, show and tell Helix for helix, smell for smell Wipe off the slime, my millions spent Don’t let it stain your noble scent Do I look right? Not tonight Not in your golden light
4.
When the sun has turned its face away And the room is black, only licked with malediction’s whispered flame Seal the exits When the walls are close and windowless And the world is small and every answer fits inside a clenching fist The night has muscles Bound together by how it is Not the way it should be but the way it is Bound together Our dry and wooden morals Tied up tight in sacrifice Feed the laughing fire of How It Is When the mind is scorned like the wandering Jew And the heart feels whole rushing back to join with Mother’s violent womb No truth but action Action for action When our dreams fall away There’s nothing left to paint the night When we’ve lost our way The razor cuts the straightest line No ideals in our eyes Just appetites
5.
Black Sun 07:00
Black sun, black sun You rule the sky the abyss on high Ancient, black, unblinking eye obvious and cold The Old One Thing that can’t be named turn all my words to flame Thing I’ve always known turning my mind to stone Can’t care, can’t care I try to cry, but my eyes are dry The nuptuals of suicide Put off til the dawn Eternal Thing that can’t be named turn all my words to flame Thing I’ve always known turning my mind to stone Before and after me archaic energy With or without proof hatred appears as truth Send me a melody send me a melody The stone will bleed the stone will bleed, I’ll search my blood for a melody Send me a melody send me a melody There’s nothing to see nothing to believe But the stone will bleed with my melody When the symbols shatter nothing matters but my melody When the words go hollow nothing follows but my melody With a melody the stone is bled turn from black to red Black stone colossus, you won’t fuck my head Bleed out the language of the dead
6.
7.
8.
Puppet 09:00
When the wound is fresh and open Bad ideas find their way in When our state is broke and trembling We want answers, simple answers When the flesh is all but dying The flies they hasten to lay their eggs down We stand divided, on the corner Primed for poison Just sell us poison This isn’t natural My brain stem is occupied land This isn’t natural I can’t feel my clutching hands What can change? And what will we have to swallow? Not this. At least not this Violent strings pull me but I won’t follow Not this. Oh no not this Won’t be a puppet to this When the wound is fresh and open Bad Ideas find their way in And when our state is broke and trembling Their offer’s final, Solution final Puppet of lust puppet of chemistry puppet of trauma puppet of pleasure puppet of fear puppet of the fist puppet of history puppet of Now puppet of no no memory puppet of blood puppet of guilt puppet of familiy puppet of ignorance puppet of love puppet of law puppet of language puppet of wealth puppet of poverty puppet of vanity puppet of morals sweet sweet morals puppet of lust puppet of chemistry puppet of trauma puppet of pleasure puppet of fear puppet of the fist puppet of history puppet of Now puppet of no no memory puppet of blood puppet of guilt puppet of familiy puppet of ignorance puppet of love puppet of law puppet of language puppet of wealth puppet of poverty puppet of vanity puppet of pleasure scars of pleasure

about

'Simple Answers' is song cycle for three vocalists and chamber orchestra (17 players). It's a concept album dealing with the work of psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva and comedian Patrice O'Neal as a jumping off point to engage themes of fascist occultism, Jewishness, masculinity, and contemporary ideological brainwashing.

Musically, the touchstones for this project include Scott Walker, Gerard Grisey, 13th century polyphony, Wagner, and Depeche Mode.


"... a powerful piece of classical music." - Pitchfork

"... one of the best albums of the year." - canthisevenbecalledmusic

"... well nigh flawless... You're on notice, punks: Charlie Looker has just reset the bar." - Toilet ov Hell

credits

released June 15, 2018

Charlie Looker: voice, bass VI, electronics
Daisy Press, Megan Schubert: sopranos
Erin Lesser: piccolo
Kelley Barnett: flute
Karisa Werdon: oboe
Tony Park: clarinet
Vasko Dukovski: bass clarinet
David Byrd-Marrow: horn
Gareth Flowers: trumpet
Jacob Garchik: bass trombone
Dennis Sullivan: drums, percussion
Kelly Moran: piano
Olivia de Prato, Pauline Kim-Harris: violin
Victor Lowrie: viola
Mariel Roberts: violoncello
Greg Chudzik: contrabass

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Charlie Looker Los Angeles, California

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