Ulterior Notes: The second attempt at recording the first DA LP (the first attempt was truncated to become the split 7" with Hellchild because we broke up halfway through recording it). I have mixed feelings about the recording. Some people like it, others don't. I fall into the later category. I was pretty excited to get the sound board recording from CBGBs out on the "Original Sound Version" CD as it has most of the songs from this LP on it and they sound a lot crunchier (guitar wise anyway). Another observation...This record was, obviously, our first and has the most meddling from me(Jon) in the music. When I stopped giving so many "orders" about how I wanted songs to go, the material got a lot better as is evident on everything we recorded after this. The lyrics are ok, though there are a lot of really hack parts (at least from my perspective). I can see Napalm Death "FETO", SOB "Gate of Doom" and that whole wave of Brit 80's HC way too much in the words. I think that Jeff and co. from Capitalist Casualties nailed a lot of what I was trying to get across here far better than I ever did. A big tip of the hat to them. If you haven't heard them, their "The Art of Ballistics" 7" and the "Disassembly Line" 12" were amazing records that went out of print way too fast and for those of us who got the cheap ass first edition CDs that Slap a Ham pressed...well we all got screwed by cheap manufacturing. I have 2 unplayed copies that I recently tried to play and neither works...wherever they were pressed, the CD quality was very cheap and the CDs fail over time... Dominion Provisioning drain Circuitry of extraction Trapped in cancer Obsessed illusion Rapacity of carnage exceeds tolerance Thoughtless abuse practiced rape Supervised extraction suits voracious interests That sap the blood from the Earth's heart The spine of a prolonged delusion We are controlled by unseen terror Notes. Probably the first true DA song, it remained in live rotation for every show after we wrote it. The sampled intro(from Akira Kurosawa's film "Dreams") was played live only once at our first show in Tokyo, in 1995, with Rob Proctor on the sticks. It was played because Proctor, given three days notice to go on tour, was still learning songs and we only had 10 minutes of live material down at that point. The "OSV" CD has a slightly different intro than the LP version. When we were mixing the CD, the "left, right" thing was on the beginning of the master. Neither the engineer(who had mixed "Ulterior" 3 years earlier), nor myself knew where it came from but it sounded cool so we left it on there. Another bit of trivia, Dominion is also the name of a manga by Masume Shirow about environmental destruction. Killing Yield Harvest the killing yield. Harvest a, killing yield From a side effect of this enterprise Meddlesome collide, with peripheral culture With garish stares and hard boiled eyes Sharpening the barbs of a disruptive ambience Blind, gagged, coiled behind the mask Construct to foster, capitalist priority Through colonial encroachment All too unaware at a vision dead point Heavy capital infect IMF manipulating The information dragnet Notes. Inspired by the comic "Third World War" (that ran in 2000 AD and was published in the US by Fleetway/Quality Comics) and another "political" comic called "Third World War", that featured Baron Storey, Peter Kuper, etc... every time it came out (seemingly at random for a while). I've seen tablature for this online, figured out by a fan ^_^ Heavy Water Detailed arcs, rout individual Doted topography a pronounced disillusion Coherent area, alienation And they dynamics of living a lie. Omniscient turbines grinding Analytical glare of anti-glee Refined into asbestos Introduced to preempt wonder. Captured in this circle - composition Stooped by patently ulterior cares The hushed quiver, of a semi-life As the machine rolls on Notes. "As the Machine Rolls On"...sigh. You'll see a lot of these little "Napalm-isms" throughout the lyrics of "Ulterior". See if you can spot them all ^_- This song does have a pretty nice scream at the beginning though. This is the first song we ever tape spliced together. Dave and Rob would write stuff and give me tapes of it to write lyrics to. At some point I started taking their stuff apart and putting it back together via tape dubs to create "my remixes". Sometimes we used them and other times we wouldn't ^_^ The astute listener will notice that the third measure of the second blast part in this song is slightly truncated. Mind Seduction Aftermath Follow in step into line after line In accordance with what's required Assigned mantelpiece, designated function Memory pulped into the assimilation spider web Assimilation spider web Mind seduction aftermath Your identity has been seduced And quickly quieted. Notes. This song should either be called "Ode to Dishamronic Orchestra" for blatantly swiping their song title "Mind Seduction" from their "Not to be Undimensional Conscience" LP or from ripping off the end to that song where the singer whispers the word "quietly". On the musical side, this is super primitive. The tablature looks something like "Follow Dave, garbage x 8 measures, slayer part x4, garbage to end." Walls Invisible manipulation access direct Lodged in the lens of television screens Suspended in virtual breeze is the screaming of ghosts Marble goldfish exercise control Notes. A short one. I really like this and the lyrics aren't too horrible. There's a lot of strange imagery in our songs but the last two lines of this one always stuck out in my mind for some reason. Ruin Trajectory Backfilled trenches bury cancer intensive dreams In razor wire orchards and bar code reefs (Where) Primary extinction communicates its intent On a Trajectory of Ruin Acrid Stock Chokes The Ground Renewed Concern For the strontium 90 offspring Boiling dust stands in pools of molten glass Severe contamination of irradiated dreams Nuclear reservations and burial gardens Alpha particles stir in the poison breeze Planting yellow posts In the sand The trail markers of irradiated dreams Trapped in senseless illusions Compressed to a state Of critical mass Notes. Inspired by the book "Nuclear Landscapes" by Peter Goin, a photo documentary of the many nuclear test and waste disposal sites left in the wake of our history. A lot of people like the "insect noises" Rob generated at the beginning of this song by rubbing his guitar pick over the strings. Dystopia Pt 2 Dystopia Notes. The one song no grind band can be without. The one second song. An institution as precious as life itself ^_- Cat's Cradle Faces pillaged of expression Homogeneous nuclear family units Holed up in external as public eye sees fit Vaccinated against free will Self-deluded by our nature Or the blank scope of ourselves? Screening decisions-integrity cremated Chaperoned orientation to fiscal Better homes and gardens or killing fields A deeper sense of nothing, of alienation. Negotiate self as target Of assimilation Controllability of linear people Autistic configuration of a cohesive identity Inarticulate posture Only serves to undermine self-determination Notes. Witte's fav song from LP number one. Lyrics are ok but not great. We played this a lot better live where I replaced a lot of the growling stuff with screams. Wheels Within Wheels A narrow formation in lobotomized rhythm Sits like a knife edge at my mind Riding with gunhed overdrive to zero Mind setting like flowers in concrete Notes. The second line is quoted from a 7 Minutes of Nausea tune on their "Noise of the Rose" 7"ep. "Riding with Gunhead" turned up later as chapter title in William Gibson's book "Virtual Light". (I have no idea if he's a DA fan but I doubt it somehow ^_-) Gunhed, correct spelling, is a live action Japanese mecha movie. At the time it seemed pretty cool, but watching it now makes me squirm. One really nice aspect about it still is that it is a really gritty looking film. Human Collateral Lease our lives, to misplaced hopes The treason of assiduity harkened by the whip crack Cruising the ruins of regret In zones of silence where time stands still Scourged and twisted, relentless constraint Absurd capitulation on the estrangement index Notes. Real old song, I think we wrote it in 92? Our first song to use diminished chords, but still real primitive. I think it was played a little differently each time we played it haha I personally like the original versions better where Wit plays the blast parts on the ride cymbal. Mimetic Hardware of slavery, treadmill of dogma A realization of the Orwellian dream Among the blind and under scrutiny Adjuncts figment as auspicious Sense the omnipotence of function Restless whims of mechanistic affairs Laid to waste by regulated proxy From a subordinated perspective Dubious problems from which disillusion projects Obstruction Collage Being Occluded Notes. First song we wrote when we reformed to record an LP in August 1993. It was also the first song to have any kind of real structure to it. Pretty catchy... Euphoria Dejection Insulated Like a metronome Debriefed at length By a steady diet of amphetamines (random screaming) Downward well Of social compression Self contained lie Of upward social mobility Persecuted labor surrogate Sprinkle me with lime A mundane euthanasia Notes. Written at the very last minute...literally. I think I improvised the middle because I couldn't come up with anything that fit on the spur of the moment. Lathe Barely perceived through somnambulity Kinetic vacuum distorts observance Air tight cages of the multiplex Deadening empty happiness Insecurity conditioning disguised As the usual advertising Dazed eyes wander casually Spatial atrophy Memory dump file Dazed rambling in synchronicity Barely perceived through somnambulity Kinetic vacuum distorts observance Air tight cages of the multiplex Deadening empty happiness Notes. This is my fav song from "Ulterior". We used to play it a lot...The intro is from the "Batman : Mask of the Phantasm" movie. The lyrics for this song are very "Multiplex", a Japanese grind band that preceded the death metal-grind hybrid shift that came to the west in the early 90's. "Multiplex", however, annihilated every band I ever heard try to follow in its shoes. Torn Wisdom has become clouded pumped with the bile Of this insular trash culture Dead state laying awake Gorging on the boundless Dead state laying awake Inculcating life as bound Lethargic conscious being Gorging on the boundless Captives of envy to possess the material icons A subtly created prison with no...walls. Ravenous synergy of time held circles Of imperical dimensions Blind, torn, ruptured and broken Enslaved by the tyranny of suspicion. Notes. Rob and myself collaborated on this one. The lyrics are pretty neat. It contains the "adjective 4 count" as it came to be known. Aka 4 adjectives in a row describing a destroyed state of being. It's in a bunch of DA songs on this record and shows up on a few tunes of "Jouhou" as well. Empire Gluttonized foundation Well versed in the art of slavery Patrons of feudal interest Scurry around a concrete beehive Crazed civilization frantically going nowhere. Notes. The first song we wrote and retained. Guitar tab reads "Follow Dave, garbage". I think that about says it all for this one ^_- Amnesia Ceiling Cherish insanity, digression grinding The cogwheels of a cool eloquence lined with an undimensional joy Amusing ourselves to death Before reclaiming a lifeless life Subscribe to whose iconisms Rallied into a closed circuit Of dreams turned sour and then turned on themselves Exotic variations (of nothing) Can't think beyond conditioning Now stand at the end of life. The broken promise of wasted activity Endure this world without end in total silence. Notes. This was rewritten after a girl I was dating heard the original version of the song and commented that she liked the little 2 measure mosh part we had thrown into it. Our policy has always been if anyone likes any of our slow parts, we make them shorter or cut them entirely. The first time we played "Typeface" live, before "Jouhou" was released, it was hilarious to watch the crowd start bobbing their heads for a second and then get their little groove thrown back into thrash beats haha Harmony Battery Rigidly perpetuated unawares Inherent abuse takes shape Submitted for strategic Rape Trace the steps of contentedness with empty traditions So called alternative is nothing but more of the same Possessive nature of the mutual farce that is harmony battery Denounce our repression or save face? Notes. Rob's fav song from "Ulterior". The music is pretty cool for this one but the lyrics are about as stupid as can be. After working in ad agencies for about 5-6 years I can safely say there is jack shit that is done at them that is genuinely strategic. Marketers are about as clued into what they do as whatever they read in the trade magazines (which explains why most things look so damn boring in the US). Ulterior Playing dead with earnest, lend to the sigh Drowning in air with a propped up smile Consigned to the enclosure of a formal life To our thought all manner to deprive Conceded to a selfish dream The ceaseless senselessness of the lemming procession Redoubled deception, extending outwards In touch with the consensual avarice Dolled eyes rejoice in illusions Notes. The title track and yowza is it lame. One-D Giving rise to self delusion A blueprint for volition deferred Punctuated sense left defused...raped Casual abuse remains unchallenged In any form but words Words that expressions of token gesture. Ritual blanket of grey, spouting a fixed lie. Notes. Melt Banana covered this song and play it way better than we ever did, though not as fast ^_- Driver's Side Air Bag Uncanny nil frames an illegal soul Existing in a pocket in which creativity is drained Through marketable deployment and planned obsolescence Manufacture according to the latest trends Sensationalize and infest Sterile faculties of capitalist incentives Of statistics and profit figures, of rivets and slag Scratch the surface of a liberation virtual and unreal A counter culture the raw material For its decimation Notes. Another song inspired by the RPG game "Paranoia". I'm not sure if it's still around but this was about the coolest pen and paper game I ever played. I like the implication that people need a layer of protection from new ideas. Well, at least that's the idea behind the title of the song. Presence A deep inside nothing Of a null and void preview Swollen with the emptiness Of distorted fulfillment excess Oblivious senses Building up the starry eyed nation. User friendly genocide, tailored to an existential suffering Strip mining, our souls and beings. Integrity of expression, sacrificed as an obstruction to sales Thoughtless short sighted gains, outweigh creativity Notes. There are a gazillion shitty bands in the world that sing about nothing and have nothing interesting or honest to say. There's also a gazillion crappy "underground" bands in the world that do the same thing but slap a "political" face on what they do. Every time I see blown up bodies and war victims on the cover of a record I want to puke. Nothing is more disgusting than using other people's suffering as your cover art. Appleseed Free thought has been hollowed Furnished with myopia Spin drift misconception Inducements stagnate Appleseed. Life inside an envelope Built on lie after lie From complex layer of illusion Can you recover your soul? Choking down expressions of homage Reshaped desires prosecute attrition rate Slotted into a life of graft Defining said contours, through make-work production Processed stimulation in their ten thousand mile stares The sour taste of a mouth full of ashes, disordered introspection Head is in the sand While subdued integrity, surpasses recognition Perspicacious dreams of liberation remain illusions. Notes. Inspired by the Masume Shirow manga of the same name. This one was played correctly for the first time when we recorded it. It used to be our hardest song to play and then we wrote LP number 2 ^o^ It remained in rotation for a while and definitely has a place in our hearts. It was the endurance champion for a grind song at that point. Delusion Envelope Spiced with, the vacuity Of inertia, unstirred Undercurrent disorder Perceive the same Anxious drones carry out virus sorties Unable to fracture displacement from our minds Mind fuck sift repeats itself Drawn to bleached definitions of gender, semiotics and race A preset, unconscious Sealed into, a vicious circle Incapable of receding Indentured precedence Mistook to select, the true means of freedom Instead breathing in deeply, from this vacuum Brewing complacency in the delusion envelope Retained in the bereft lobe of alienation Harmony gouged out until depleted Inevitable breakdown, of automated life. Notes. This song is pretty cool. We used to open with it on the Melt Banana/DA tour in 95. The lyrics are good and bad...some measures are neat and others are just stupid. I really wish I didn't get hung up on using such obtuse words to describe everything back then. Sigh. What's past is past though. [ back ]