Acetylene (album)
Encyclopedia
Acetylene is a 2005 album by The Walkabouts
. The fieriest and the angriest album in their history.
government and its foreign policy, it opens up with 'Fuck Your Fear', a slow grinding barrage of distorted, hazy guitars and pounding, tolling-bell drums. Eckman and Torgerson's joint vocals describe a world teetering on the abyss in which the 60's hippy dream has long gone rotten ("Dead folksingers lie in state/Acolytes scrape off their plates/The message falls onto deaf ears") and death comes quickly and in abundance ("New gravediggers born each day").
The second track 'Coming Up for Air' turns its attention on the environment and whips together heavy jangles of guttural guitar chord and klaxoning keyboards with grinding slithers of Wells' bass and more of Moeller's funereal drum beats. With an urgent Eckman this time singing on his own, it tells of the Latin American poor forced to work as cheap labour in mines that have long since been rendered poisonous and unsafe. ("Suckin' alabaster in a ventilator shaft/Chewin' on surrender because it's cheap and it lasts/This ain't hell, it's a holdin' tank"). Outside though the air is no fresher and similarly polluted ("I know this tunnel leads outside/Down to the river where the elephants die").
Later on, the distorted, detuned 'Kalishnikov' portrays the "closed circuit silence" and horror world of two Third World refugees, who are herded from one transit camp into the next ("They're bulldozing the suburbs down/Putting up a razor fence"), but whose guards are also trapped and imprisoned ("The commando squad/is bored and poorly fed/Surveillance is their dog/And it's hounding us to death").
As 'Acetylene
' seers towards its conclusion, Eckman's lyrics become increasingly futuristic. The penultimate track, the gusting, discordant 'Before This City Wakes', finds its narrator wandering around a dying city of the near future which, as law and order totally breaks down, has slid into complete chaos and moral hell (" So many victims of pleasure/That I've stopped counting")
By the time of the final song, the nine minute 'The Last Ones', the apocalypse has come. After all the thunder and discordance of the previous nine songs, 'The Last Ones' in contrast is soft and elegiac. Ebbing guitars revolve and rotate against a backdrop of eerie atmospherics from Slater and Moeller. Eckman and Torgerson, both singing together, are two of the last survivors, dreamily wanting to head home, even though there is no home left ("We'll be headed home/Heaven knows/There was no place for us to go").
The Walkabouts
The Walkabouts is an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1984. The core members are vocalist Carla Torgerson and vocalist and songwriter Chris Eckman...
. The fieriest and the angriest album in their history.
The content of the songs
A scathing, furious attack on the George W. BushGeorge W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
government and its foreign policy, it opens up with 'Fuck Your Fear', a slow grinding barrage of distorted, hazy guitars and pounding, tolling-bell drums. Eckman and Torgerson's joint vocals describe a world teetering on the abyss in which the 60's hippy dream has long gone rotten ("Dead folksingers lie in state/Acolytes scrape off their plates/The message falls onto deaf ears") and death comes quickly and in abundance ("New gravediggers born each day").
The second track 'Coming Up for Air' turns its attention on the environment and whips together heavy jangles of guttural guitar chord and klaxoning keyboards with grinding slithers of Wells' bass and more of Moeller's funereal drum beats. With an urgent Eckman this time singing on his own, it tells of the Latin American poor forced to work as cheap labour in mines that have long since been rendered poisonous and unsafe. ("Suckin' alabaster in a ventilator shaft/Chewin' on surrender because it's cheap and it lasts/This ain't hell, it's a holdin' tank"). Outside though the air is no fresher and similarly polluted ("I know this tunnel leads outside/Down to the river where the elephants die").
Later on, the distorted, detuned 'Kalishnikov' portrays the "closed circuit silence" and horror world of two Third World refugees, who are herded from one transit camp into the next ("They're bulldozing the suburbs down/Putting up a razor fence"), but whose guards are also trapped and imprisoned ("The commando squad/is bored and poorly fed/Surveillance is their dog/And it's hounding us to death").
As 'Acetylene
Acetylene
Acetylene is the chemical compound with the formula C2H2. It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is unstable in pure form and thus is usually handled as a solution.As an alkyne, acetylene is unsaturated because...
' seers towards its conclusion, Eckman's lyrics become increasingly futuristic. The penultimate track, the gusting, discordant 'Before This City Wakes', finds its narrator wandering around a dying city of the near future which, as law and order totally breaks down, has slid into complete chaos and moral hell (" So many victims of pleasure/That I've stopped counting")
By the time of the final song, the nine minute 'The Last Ones', the apocalypse has come. After all the thunder and discordance of the previous nine songs, 'The Last Ones' in contrast is soft and elegiac. Ebbing guitars revolve and rotate against a backdrop of eerie atmospherics from Slater and Moeller. Eckman and Torgerson, both singing together, are two of the last survivors, dreamily wanting to head home, even though there is no home left ("We'll be headed home/Heaven knows/There was no place for us to go").
Track listing
All songs by Chris Eckman.- "Fuck Your Fear" – 4:15
- "Coming up for Air – 4:06
- "Devil in the Details" – 4:24
- "Whisper" – 5:55
- "KalashnikovKalashnikovKalashnikov is commonly used to refer to a type of rifle, but it and similar words also have other meanings:-People:*Mikhail Kalashnikov , Russian small arms designer*Maxim Kalashnikov , Russian writer and political activist...
" – 5:31 - "Have You Ever Seen the Morning?" – 3:56
- "Northsea Train" – 5:43
- "AcetyleneAcetyleneAcetylene is the chemical compound with the formula C2H2. It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is unstable in pure form and thus is usually handled as a solution.As an alkyne, acetylene is unsaturated because...
" – 3:36 - "Before This City Wakes" – 6:02
- "The Last Ones" – 9:09
Musicians
- Terri Moeller – drums
- Michael Wells – bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
- Glenn Slater – Minimoog synthesizerMinimoogThe Minimoog is a monophonic analog synthesizer, invented by Bill Hemsath and Robert Moog. It was released in 1970 by R.A. Moog Inc. , and production was stopped in 1981. It was re-designed by Robert Moog in 2002 and released as Minimoog Voyager.The Minimoog was designed in response to the use of...
, organOrgan (music)The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, mellotronMellotronThe Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin Music Master, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard intended for music... - Chris Eckman – vocals, electric guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
- Carla Torgerson – vocals, electric guitar
- Al DeLoner (of Midnight ChoirMidnight ChoirMidnight Choir was a Norwegian indie/alternative rock band active from 1992 to 2004. Its members were Al DeLoner , Paal Flaata, and Ron Olsen...
) – occasionally lead electric guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
, pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, e-bowE-BowThe EBow or ebow is a hand-held, battery-powered electronic device for playing the electric guitar, invented by Greg Heet in 1969...