Grey Lenses – Motivating Tunes (2016)

Hello again, we’re back with my brand new EP "Motivating Tunes", released less than 2 weeks ago! I’m proud to announce this release has solemn “CV 20” mark, as it’s 20^th release of our Concern Void Records informal label.

Mostly this post is about informing you about the news, as it’s kinda hard to review a record which has been released almost yesterday.

I recorded this EP in late 2015, the album cover again shows snow in my native Siberian town, but this time the snow gets dirty, as well as the sound goes harsher, with more noises – and it represents what (in my opinion) a noise-pop record should sound like.

Actually, additional noises is the only major change, this is still minimalistic, “cold” EP inspired by our ruthless winter, a lo-fi minimal synth which I wanted to be as “icy” as it was a year ago on my previous EP.

The title track, “Cell” has its roots in the very early times of my existence as “Grey Lenses”, a metaphor of being put in a cell where the only thing you could do is beating its walls by your own head (this is what the noises in the interlude are supposed to express). This image got stuck in my mind for years, and finally I found courage to express my feelings in the song. Moreover, it’s a humble tribute to one of my favorites, a song “White Cell” by Clock DVA; also it was partially inspired by Coil’s “Cold Cell”, but I tried to express feelings and thoughts without any quotes or tendencies to sound alike, to resemble, and to remind of these songs.

Teach me, mother’s little helper,

‘cause my patience’s growing thinner

Things are still the same: “forced” sense of guilt, lack of “metaphysical” freedom (something what the Underground Man constantly craved for). The lines

I reject to make a fortune

If we’re fortunate with none

Are about famous poem “How Fortunate the Man With None” by Berthold Brecht, also known for its interpretation by the legendary Dead Can Dance.

The second song, “The Windstorm”, is mostly inspired by winter, the cruel wind in the Siberian plain, the blizzard, etc. (noises again serve their purpose), but it also touches upon some topics which I found bothering me again and again, like the poseur suicide, this time about the story of a “brave just for a day” German philosopher Philipp Mainlaender who hanged himself by jumping from the pile of copies of his freshly published book “The Philosophy of Redemption”:

Why does the salvation come too late?

Why do we think our doings were that great?

And then I reflect everything on me and see myself as a web-partisan hiding behind the mask for these long years, which is corresponding with an ad of Laibach’s app which should be downloaded to help me “be a better partisan”. An image of Sisyphus and a novella by Akutagawa, “Dialogue in the Dark”, are also mentioned in this song.

The third song, “Curiosity (Lead Masks)” is a topical song about a creepy story occurred in 1960’s in Brazil. Having read about this story, I was shocked for its desperately tragic character, almost cathartic and sacrificial, while it is most likely to be a murder for money. Such examples teach us that sometimes it is better not to have faith at all than to trust that much.

The final test of your belief

A secret mission of New Dark Age.

How much would you pay for curiosity?

The motive of climbing a hill repeats here and in the previous song, the state of “climbing up” is what I’m currently trying to do, and I experience certain difficulties connected with it.

The final track, “External Approval”, is about motivation and dependence from others’ points of view, about lack of confidence in order not to overestimate myself; and also about the tendency to hold my ambitions. The final words have also been in my head for a long, long time, and finally found their expression. The line “I’d like to hear a new noise” nods towards Tuxedomoon’s “What Use”, which, I dare to say, has quite a similar mood.

Download for free from BandCamp:



 

Or listen to YouTube playlist 

Well, that’s it, I hope you like my new EP. Anyway, your feedback is desperately needed! Please recommend this EP to your friends if you like it. Remember that I need you and

Remain, yours sincerely,

John “Grey Lenses” Grey