Get all 17 Mark Automaton releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The Ernie Protocols #1, A Child of Five Could Do That, The Kill-Switch Fails, The Automaton Variations, you are not the reason, anymore, IMPOSSIBILISM, Trust Issues, Thin Silhouettes, and 9 more.
1. |
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The Catherine-wheels dazzle
Leave a blurred afterimage
Night-birds gather
Like furtive parlour-singers
The mourners, broken-hearted
Shuffle along the track
Stern northerners mutter
And wave a union jack
And stupidity runs through everything
Stupidity runs through everything
Who's the real winner
When ignorant scientists
Overthrow wayward pilgrims
Denying they exist
Sweet-voiced sisters
Carelessly rend
Their filmy petticoats
In a bout of frantic hymns
And stupidity runs through everything
Stupidity runs through everything
Seventy-two protesters
Anointing mother earth
Discordant, dithering
Predict a virgin birth
Meanwhile, in Havana
Fluent-tongued beauties
Don their chiffon robes
With the sacrificial rubies
And stupidity runs through everything
Stupidity runs through everything
The cotton-fields are aflame
The orphans all lie bleeding
The drunkards take no notice
As we bid you all good evening
And stupidity runs through everything
Stupidity runs through everything
Good evening
Good evening
Good evening
Good evening!
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2. |
I'm So Happy
02:50
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I'm so happy - I don't know why
I'm so happy - I want to cry
I'm so happy - can't you see?
I'm so happy - just look at me
I want no part of this conspiracy
Make your evil plans with someone else
A lot of people put their trust in me
I will not betray myself
I'm so happy - I don't know why
I'm so happy - I want to cry
I'm so happy - can't you see?
I'm so happy - just look at me
I want no part of this controversy
Arguing does not interest me
Maybe it fulfils a need in you
But I'll never have the time to see
I'm so happy - I don't know why
I'm so happy - I want to cry
I'm so happy - can't you see?
I'm so happy - just look at me
I'm so happy
I'm so happy
I'm so happy
I'm so happy
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3. |
Dolly Daydream
03:07
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Another day dawns way too soon
Bursting uninvited into her room
Lighting up the wreckage
Cutting through the gloom
To Dolly Daydream
Dolly Daydream
Demons bouncing on her bed
Vulcan hammers inside her head
"If this is my life then
I would rather be dead"
Thinks Dolly Daydream
Dolly Daydream
She seems to spend half of her life
Waiting for the lights to change
No sooner have they turned to green
Than they're back to red again
The time slips by, she wants to cry
Where does it go? She doesn't know
Each hour melts into the one before
Bottles of vodka and little white pills
The cause of, and cure for, all her ills
No past, no future
No hope, no thrills
For Dolly Daydream
Dolly Daydream
She kissed the boys, but they made her cry
She kissed the girls too, and she wonders why
"Am I really living
If I'm living a lie?"
Asks Dolly Daydream
Dolly Daydream
She seems to spend half of her life
Waiting for the lights to change
No sooner have they turned to green
Than they're back to red again
The time slips by, she wants to cry
Where does it go? She doesn't know
Each hour melts into the one before
Another day ends as it began
In the human race she's an also-ran
"Have I been missed out
From some master plan?"
Wonders Dolly Daydream
Dolly Daydream
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4. |
Advice to a Young Man
05:32
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Drunken girl in her milky gown
Pink frantic summer dress
A thousand stars are sleeping on
The gorgeous symphony of her breast
Remember the angel with a voice of velvet
Lingering in a whirl of smoke
Dark child celebrates a work of brilliance
Exploring your ferocious dance
These two secrets, devouring, delicious
Wake from eternity and desire
Then, naked, wet and blushing
Turn away from your sacred fire
Ask for a broken picture
Of liquid marble men
Give in to steaming embraces
And mornings with coffee cake
Dazzle women with your rhythmic breath
Desire decaying hearts that bleed
Secret blues into a poisoned ocean
And look into this clouded glass
Death, black as a crushing urge
Sordid summer of aching sleep
Scream and drive away the rain
The shadows watch together.
Life, languid, whispers "Please"
Sweetly smear a thousand dreams
Sing beneath your ugly skin
As friendless music pounds
Laughing young men secretly praise
The melting joy of perfumed drapes
Gods drink, decay and die
Surrounded by a cloud of stars
Ask me for no words
They would linger too long
In the concrete grasp of sad poetry
This smile hides
An eternity of secrets
The magic prisoner of silk and steel
Spring is always cloudy
The Earth cannot rest in peace
Summer breathes a sanctuary
Into the murmuring forest
Autumn covers seeds with gentle frost
Each vivid bough an ancient Eden
Winter never leaves
My quiet world of shade
We beat about these misty waters
In a ship of elaborate whispers
Stormy pictures playing in our heads
The dreaming, reeling men
Me and my mother
Recalling a thousand bitter deaths
We heave together while a lazy moon shines down
Like a television
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5. |
Dark and Stormy Night
03:02
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It was a dark and stormy night
That's the way these stories go
Or at least that's what they tell me
The kind of people who would know
I was living down in Bristol
With a woman and a cat
I asked "Will this last forever?"
She said "I seriously doubt that"
It was a dark and stormy night
And the rain was driving down
I climbed aboard a train
And got the hell out of that town
I had lots of time for thinking
But still I'm mystified
About who is right and who is wrong
And who gets to decide
It was a dark and stormy night
Though perhaps not quite as black
As the thoughts that circled in my mind
As we rattled down that track
So how should I begin
And how should I presume
To ignore the clumsy elephant
That blunders round the room?
It's a dark and stormy night
And the hour is getting late
But still I can't transmute the lead of love
Into the gold of hate
So the pantomime continues
As it has done all my life
As beguiling as a lover
As familiar as a wife
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6. |
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Gnarled pebbles, dead men's teeth
Almost barbarous, but strangely sorrowful
The nail-marks on the weathercock
Dismissed by sceptical boys
Swarthy policemen from Massachusetts
Are shouldering their gaunt guitars
While a naked metaphysician crawls
Across a greenish stockroom floor
In his hands a cutlass and a filthy kettle
He swears in gutteral French
While the night-watchman's eyes survey
The superhighways of the cosmos
Bacchus overslept, lounging childlike
While rum-drinkers grasp a poisoned fig
Sycamore trees crack like knuckles
And porcelain skeletons rattle in outhouses
Frozen bodies in close-packed graveyards
Statuesque chambers of earsplitting silence
Christians cartwheel past in the costumes
Of immigrants, teachers and troubadors
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7. |
All Aboard!
02:21
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Blow the whistle, ring the bell
All aboard, all aboard!
This handcart is bound for hell
All aboard, all aboard!
Look around you - what the hell have you done?
Be dismayed, be dismayed
The movie's over and the bad guys won
Be afraid, be very afraid
They're all laughing but you don't get the joke
Everyone knows, everyone knows
Your whole future is up in smoke
There it goes, there it goes
All those promises that you read
They were lies, nothing but lies
Now the gold has turned to lead
What a surprise, what a surprise
We're all in the gutter and there are no stars
The sky is dark, the night is black
The scapegoats are heading to the abbatoirs
There's no way back, it's a one-way track
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8. |
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Mid 50s teenage danceparty
In a second world war
How do we reach it?
How do we succeed?
Drawings on the floorboards
Our parents will have to be tricked
Material
And moral
We're attacking everything
And everyone
Everything
Everyone
How do we reach you?
How to make you see
We're laughing at you
But you're loving every minute, aren't you?
You're loving every minute, you fools
Mid 50s teenage danceparty
In a second world war
Two flies squashed in the act of copulation
It's absurdity
Absurdity
Absurdity
The drunken ramblings of a hooligan
Condemning the formal procedure
The woods are white or black
They will never go to sleep
Lost in the forest
Absurd
Can't go on
Want to go home
Mid 50s teenage danceparty
In the year after next
Laughing a little nervously
I felt my heart explode
Exchange of signals
Hating by semaphore
Delirious phenomena
I can't see further than the toe of my boot
But who needs to?
Who really needs to?
Death is a mystery no longer
But creation is the only true pleasure
Or is it?
Or is it?
Mid 50s teenage danceparty
In a nuclear shelter
Mid 50s teenage danceparty
In a blazing building
Mid 50s teenage danceparty
Can be quite amusing
Mid 50s teenage danceparty
Can be thoroughly confusing
Mid 50s teenage danceparty
Dance with me
Mid 50s teenage danceparty
Won't you dance with me?
Let's dance
Dance with me
Let's dance
Let's dance
With me
Let's dance
Dance, dance
In a blazing building
Dance, dance
In a nuclear shelter
Dance
With
Me
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9. |
Lots of Fun
02:57
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Would you lay down your life for music?
Would you die for Radio One?
Would you make the ultimate sacrifice
For a tune that you can hum?
Singing songs is lots of fun
But it’s not enough to base your life upon
I’ll buy you a ring and let’s get married
I’ll love you forever more
Or at least until the divorce comes through
When you leave, don’t slam the door
Being in love is lots of fun
But it’s not enough to base your life upon
How precious are the things you value?
How essential are the things you need?
What’s the point of status-seeking
Materialism and greed?
Owning things is lots of fun
But it’s not enough to base your life upon
You wanna be rich and powerful
An influential man some day
Walking all over the people
Who happen to get in your way
Being important is lots of fun
But it’s not enough to base your life upon
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10. |
Thirteen Nights
03:39
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Was I a visionary?
Am I a fool?
Were you angry
Or just being cruel?
You were Ophelia
I was a clown
The things that you said
Are bringing me down
The first time I saw you
You were standing on the lawn
I saw flowers bloom around you
And then they were gone
I tried hard to capture
Your spirit and grace
Make the shapes in my mind
Fit the lines of your face
Then there was the time
You asked about my sister
I didn't even
Know that you missed her
The door of my wardrobe
Stands open wide
A painful reminder
That you once hid inside
Now and then the postman
Asks if you're well
I have to lie to him
And I know he can tell
I see him now
From my window seat
He's photographing children
As they play in the street
Were you just a princess
Or an exquisite whore?
Have I loved you enough?
Do I need to love you more?
I wore my love like a medal
My pride came before a fall
Sometimes I wonder
If we ever met at all
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11. |
Bloodless Guns
02:22
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Windmills breathing
Crowbars burying
Night neverending
River-banks glow
Deafening moonshine
Crucified seducer
Secret corridor
Rattling breath
Holy prophets
Caretakers sneaking
Colours moving
Foothills steep
Western psychology
Jaded paradox
Words dismissed
Nervous eyes
Pointless meditations
Sympathetic delusions
Messy needles
Opiate hell
Nostalgic fashion
Gasping bridegrooms
Hypnotised angels
Bloodless guns
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12. |
Parallax
04:13
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This is a photograph
Of the girl I mentioned
You see she had black hair then
It's so easy
To be cynical
No need for explanation
There is a small
Discrepancy
Between the mind and the eye
A love letter
A suicide note
Are not real reasons to die
There is a small
Discrepancy
Between the head and the heart
You claim to have
Known this all along
You could see the ending from the start
Why must I
Conform to your standards?
I play this game to my own rules
If you're not interested
I'll show you to the door
I've had more than my share of ridicule
There is a small
Discrepancy
Between the head and the heart
You claim to have
Known this all along
You could see the ending from the start
There is a small
Discrepancy
Between the mind and the eye
A love letter
A suicide note
These are not real reasons to die
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13. |
Ballad of the New Things
04:19
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The weather man says rain today
Wrap up well before you go out to play
Look both ways before you cross the street
Go to the shop and get something to eat
Buildings rise up all around him
Biting wind and rain to drown him
Faces looking out of windows
In the art shops, at the bus stops
He sold his soul to a business man
But his life is still his own
He meets his girlfriend in the library
The smell of lust among the books
He knows his sex life is a bore
He thinks his love life is a chore
He tries to watch the television
But tires of its repetition
And the newspapers make no sense
And the newspapers make no sense at all
He puts on a suit and then he dies
Monday to Friday, from nine to five
He hides the urge to kill the boss
Fools himself he doesn’t give a toss
Gets his money, goes into town
Looking in shops and walking around
Buying new things he doesn’t need
Fireproof, shockproof, guaranteed
He’s trapped inside an empty city
That’s full of people but no friends
And the only consolation for him
Is new things and money to spend
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14. |
The Shoes of Revenge
04:05
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On a desolate glittering night
Assyrian prisoners strain their bonds
Uttering incantations
Fireflies among the brooding pines
Sleepless alcoholic hangmen
Praying for salvation
This is the verse
This is the song
These are the shoes
Put them on
Put them on
Ivory blossoms bend in the wind
Lit by pulsating rays
From distant constellations
The battlefield is thick with smoke
And superficial lies
Related in exultation
Pack up the books
Turn off the tape
Put on the shoes
There's no escape
No escape
Twenty-four unbroken tablets
Engraved with obscene poems
Offering new temptations
The guests recline on dirty sheets
Bewitched by laughing maids
They wallow in degradation
No time for regret
Take a final breath
Put on the shoes
Dance to your death
To your death
To your death
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15. |
A History of Violence
02:48
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I took my dog to the outhouse
Shot him in the head
I took my dog to the outhouse
Shot him in the head
He was old, he was sick
He was better off dead
(In my opinion)
My neighbour was a scumbag
He would beat his wife
My neighbour was a scumbag
He would beat his wife
So I cut off his balls
With a rusty knife
(It was a service to the community)
My baby went and left me
For another man
My baby went and left me
For another man
So I caved in his head
With a frying pan
(It was the first thing that came to hand)
Reverend Johnson told me
That I'm going to hell
Reverend Johnson told me
I'm going to hell
So I slit his throat
And stuffed him down a well
(I'm sure, as a Christian, he'd forgive me)
Now, you might think
That I've crossed a line
You might think
That I've crossed a line
But just stay out of my way
And you'll be just fine
(I'm not a bad person - I've just done bad things)
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Mark Automaton UK
Mark Automaton came to prominence as a founding member of the seminal “cassette culture” band the Instant Automatons, who
were instrumental in spearheading the UK DIY music scene of the late 70s and early 80s.
Since then, Mark has been active as a producer, musical collaborator and solo artist, releasing music under his own name and also as 391 and randomk/automata.
... more
Mark Automaton recommends:
Sincerely Making A Noise
by Instant Automatons
Instant Automatons retrospective released by BFE Records
go to album
12 errors of judgement
by richard randomk
Music and passion
go to album
Music/Poetry/Video project by Will Vigar and Mark Automaton
go to albumIf you like Mark Automaton, you may also like:
Have Some Shame
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Gutsy New Romantic synthpop from Austin, Texas with hooks and heartache galore.
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Within/Without
by Houses of Heaven
If you've been craving something dark and gritty yet stylish and dancefloor-ready, this hard-edged industrial synth opus might fit the bill.
go to album
Asleep At The Wheel Of Love
by Chances Are
Sprightly, eccentric EP from a New Zealand-based post-punk outfit featuring members of Trust Punks, Cool Cult, and Long Distance.
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